Royal diaries

A young woman dressed beautifully in a ravishing off-white gown embroidered with liana and floral motifs, welcomed us with a smile on her face as we entered the multi designer store, Ole Couture. The woman was adorned in one of the ensembles among the Samant Chauhan's dazzling Rajputana Kumari collection, which he showcased at the Amazon India Fashion Week in March. “All these collections are a denser version of the designs we incorporated at the Fashion Week, we have taken the embroidery but changed the style to gowns, lehengas et al. to suit the tastes of the Indian market,” he shared. Every season Chauhan comes up with a different story of the Rajputanas, from Rajputana Bikers to Kumari, he feels that he is obsessed with the Rajputana factor. He further added, “Rajasthan is very rich and unique in terms of the designs and inspiration it offers to outsiders.”

However, his latest concept, Rajputana Kumari, weaves a story around Nepal's tradition of worshipping female energy and tranquility. While many designers feel that the hues of bronze and white are very restrictive to experiment with in the world of fashion, he on the other hand presented the entire story of womanhood by playing with these colours. “I do not favour the use of bright colors but encourage implementation of fibers in my designs their natural colour form, to give a dazzling feel. And that is why we work with subtle colors, until and unless there is a demand from our customers for their brighter counterparts,” he explained.

He admitted that the majority of his designs were inspired by nature, to provide his customers with something novel and alluring at the same time. He voiced his opinion, “Nature is full of unique compositions and motifs inspired by nature always attract customers, because of appealing look.” However other than the heavy zardozi designs, with which he works, the designer also came up with various unique and creative techniques to create beautiful impressions on his designs. Amongst the wide variety of techniques he implements, Chauhan used mosquito coils to burn the fabric and then sandwiched it with organza fabric before the final stitching in order to give the apparel a distinctive glimpse. The best part is that the designs are grabbing customers in plenty due to its peculiarity. “The collections are just amazing from the quality of fabric to the quirky designs, it's just a perfect blend of innovation and creativity,” echoed Rupali, one of the guests at the shop. 

 “Though we are working with very intricate embroideries but at the same time we are picking up something which pops out,” Chauhan added, referring to his bridal wear. Other than choosing standard bridal dress colours like maroon or magenta, he has worked with hues of white and golden with a hint of red in it. “Brides of today have become very experimental with their look, its not just red or maroon that they want to carry on their special day but they find white or bronze equally pleasing and attractive,” said Chauhan. With no seeming limit to his quirky creativity, Chauhan is sure to go a long way.