Designer Samant Chauhan will present his Rajputana collection for the seventh time at the latest edition of fashion week. He tells Arjita Mishra that it was quite challenging for him to work on the collection as he had to create something different while staying within the limited boundaries of fabrics, colours and embroidery
He has won four major awards at his graduating show at the National Institute of Fashion Designing, New Delhi, and then he made a mark at Singapore Fashion week which was followed by his successful journey at Indian fashion week. “A lot of buyers liked my collection and purchased it. That was an amazing experience,” said Samant Chauhan, a young yet very popular fashion designer. Such is his talent that he managed to make his presence felt in the fashion industry with his very first show.
He belongs to Bhagalpur, Bihar, and the ones who are familiar with his work would know that a huge part of his designs involve the use of Bhagalpuri weaves. He told us that one of the reasons for the downfall of Bhagalpuri weaves was that the weavers did not have dyeing facility. “When I stared, then the idea was that, if we cannot dye the fabric, let us make the fabric look beautiful and explore the texture of the fabric or yarn,” he said.
This is also one of the reasons why we see muted colours in his collection. “After working with the local weavers for so long, slowly I fell in love with this fabric. Bhagalpur is the core of our brand. We are very versatile in weaving Bhagalpuri. We closely work with the local weavers and in every season, we develop atl east two new fabrics,” said the designer.
We asked Chauhan whether he had planned to become a designer or whether it all happened by chance, he laughed hard and told us that he became a fashion designer because he never wanted to study. “But the best part was that my parents encouraged me. My father, especially, supported me a lot. I was very bad at writing, so I was very sure that I was not going to choose any career which had to do anything with writing. So, the options which I had were animation, film making, graphics, photography and fashion. I chose fashion because it had everything. You get to learn art, photography and even you get to learn about history of your culture,” he pointed out.
In the last edition of the FDCI fashion week, the designer had traced the journey of Alexander and his encounter with Porus on the banks of river Hydaspes, now known as Jhelum. This time, he has drawn his inspiration from the journey of the Rajputanas. He will be showcasing his collection on the second day of fashion week, which will begin from March 16. But more than that, the designer is excited about his show at grand finale. “This season we are coming up with the story, where the Rajputanas are travelling in search of the Silk Route. So, in the collection, they will cross China, Tibet and Nepal, and will reach Mongolia amidst heavy winter. So that is what I am going to portray,” he explained.
This is not for the first time when the designer is going to showcase his Rajputana collection. “This will be the Rajputanas seventh collection. The challenging thing for me is that I use Bhagalpuri silk, colours and embroidery. To do something different while being restricted within these boundaries is a difficult task because if I repeat, no one will buy my clothes,” Chauhan pointed out.
On asking him whether or not he would be exploring the weaves of Benaras like several other designers he said, “Benaras is a very rich fabric. Most of the designer either buy fabric from Benaras or they develop some fabrics from there. It is a very luxury fabric what they are using. But, for me, Bhagalpur or any other craft, is yet to be revived.” He also told us that apart from Bhagalpuri, he also works with other indigenous fabric.
The designer explained that there is a very small market in India for Bhagalpuri silk because winters remain for shorter periods and the demand for the fabric is not throughout the year. “So one has to come up with the solution as this is one of the main reasons why this particular weaving community is going down,” he said and added, “You have to come up with something which balances both these things.”
He told us that the time when he started working in Bhagalpur, he had introduced lenin. “And now, I think 80 per cent of lenin comes from there. We also started block printing, and we bought two block printers from Sanganer and we started it in 2007 or 2008. Now they have five to six hundred block printing unit sand 10 to 15 people working on them,” he pointed out to the growth which the weave has seen in the past few years.
When asked about how he sees the Indian market in terms of fashion, he replied, “I think India is a huge market. Most of the designers who are successful, are selling either their clothes or accessories in India. We have a great market here. like for example, I started with london fashion week and I did not get a buyer there but got lot of buyers in India on my very first show.”
Chauhan took us on a tour of his warehouse where his worker were engaged in making the outfits for the finale, and was kind enough to show us some of his creations. Not wanting to reveal his collection he gave us a sneak peek into a few sketches and photographs which inspired the collection.
Chauhan also shared that soon, he is going to open his new store at Shahpur Jat. “It will be of three floors — for men, women and kids,” he said and added, “I had a store at Defence Colony but closed it because people wanted me to be there when they bought something from the store so that I may suggest them on their purchases. For example, if a bride is coming to get a lehenga for her wedding then she would want the designer to be there to guide her with the outfit. But for me it was difficult to be present there everyt ime as I had my warehouse at Shahpur Jat. So, I planned to open the showroom next to my warehouse. It would make communicating a little bit easier,” he concluded.