Dilip Kapur, president of a renowned leather bag brand, is a rebel who went against conventional norms of trade. He picked up his design philosophy while growing up at Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry and made the West go crazy about his creations. He shares his journey with D Kaushik
It comes as a surprise that a man who has created a luxe statement worldwide with his bags is a staunch follower of simplicity. While growing up at Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, he learnt one thing: there is great beauty in simplicity. That stays as his design philosophy till today. “Growing up in theashram where everything was innovative left a mark on me. We were taught to think differently, value our heritage as Indians and still be international.
The ashram influenced me in my growing up years and it continues to do so. Pondicherry has always been the center of innovation. The French left a legacy of tall, cool colonial buildings, creativity and cosmopolitanism. The ashram and Auroville have brought a continuous stream of rebels, hippies and spiritual seekers. Their intermingling with the warm Tamil society has created an innovative population of artists, craftsmen and dreamers that continues to inspire us to be creative,” says Dilip Kapur, president, Hidesign, the brand that was started as a two-man workshop in 1978.
A career in leather industry was never a planned thing for Kapur. He was doing PhD in international affairs from America. “My interests were much more political. I was involved in radical activities and had long hair down till my waist. I worked for nine months in a leather company, I loved the feel and smell of leather and what really surprised me was that we were importing a premium quality, very expensive leather from England to make bags and they called it EI leather. I asked people what EI leather was and I was told it stands for East India leather. I researched and found out that the EI leather originated less than 100 miles from my home town of Pondicherry. The distinctive quality of EI leather came from the use of barks, seeds and oils native to South Indian mountains and forests. It really intrigued me but when I came back to India my interest was still socio-political.
I came back to Auroville to create this new world. But there wasn’t much to do, so I just started fiddling with bags and with the help of one person I started making them. I made seven bags in 15 days and then somebody came from Germany and saw those bags. He loved them and ordered 1,400. But I had only one person to complete such a task. After six months I had only made 300 bags and that’s how it started. But they were totally different from anything that existed then and they reflected the culture that I grew up with, which was in rebellion to what was there. Then existed those very slick, shiny bags and what I loved about leather was the opposite. I loved its naturalness. We rediscovered EI leather. Back then, every thing was being chemically tanned in India, we focussed on natural quality and it appealed to a lot of people who believe in ecology. Having a chrome tan leather bag is like one more poison we are putting in our body,” shares Kapur.
At a time when most Indians spent money on imported brands or copies, it was not an easy task to make people believe in authentic leather bags that boasted of simple designs and high quality. Moreover, says Kapur, “We didn’t know business so we were cheated very often, we didn’t understand how to create a great business proposition. We kept getting stuck. Being in Pondicherry is not conducive to be having a great infrastructure, we were not in touch with the outside world. But it had a silver lining. We did things in our own way, we were self-reliant. We made our own buckles, we made own tannery.” From 1978 to 2000, the brand was only selling abroad. On a friend’s suggestion, the brand first started selling from Bengaluru and most takers were NRIs and foreigners. Going by the good results, further stores were opened in Connaught Place, Goa and Pondicherry. “The brand’s popularity was a surprise for me. Discovering the Indian market was a huge thing for me and I just fell in love with India again,” says Kapur.
When every other leather factory in India was employing workers from the cobbler community that worked in leather from Kolkata and Bihar, Kapur created his army of women, who were educated till 12th standard. The advantage with them was that they could be trained easily with the set of written steps or instructions to make a bag. “There were mostly men in business then with generations of leather skills so they really knew kaarigari, but we didn’t have that as we were working with village girls. They didn’t have great skills like the kaarigars but they could read and write so we gave them written instructions to follow. We are the only company that goes with detailed step sheets on how to make a bag step by step, which we learnt from louis Vuitton. The brand has 100 pages of step sheet for every bag. We have 12 or 13 of them whereas no other company has even a single page. They work with samples,” explains Kapur.
Today it is not just bags. leather jackets and sunglasses are also products that the brand is known for. Next, the brand is venturing into shoes by early February and stationary for gifting.
To celebrate the 35 years of the brand, a unique exhibition, Icon exhibition, was curated to showcase the brand’s early creations.