Dressing B'Town wives, selling at Bergdorf Goodman, putting Indian princesses on ramp: Pallavi Jaikishan has done it all

THIS year is indeed a very special one for designer Pallavi Jaikishan. As one of India’s first couturiers, Jaikishan is celebrating 50 years of being in the business. Jaikishan’s elegant saris and lehengas, opulent with English roses and pastel colours, with threads and sequins from France, have been consistently beauteous for all these years. “Everyday I tell myself I have to do the same thing I’ve been doing, but make it a little different from what I did 10 years ago,” she laughs.

Jaikishan was that rare mix of fashion and Bollywood in the 1960s and 1970s, when almost every designer is dying to get a toe-in even today. She was married to the legendary Jaikishan Panchal (the family now uses his first name), of the Shankar-Jaikishan composing duo of too many hit films, like ‘Awara’, ‘Shree 420’, ‘Daag’, ‘Barsaat’, ‘Boot Polish’. “Oh, my life was so different then. I was married to the kindest and most romantic man. He would be gifting away apartments to so many people he worked with. Our house was always full of producers and songwriters, there was always tea and nashta to be organised,” she smiles. “One day he told me that Shammi Kapoor and Neila had gotten married the day before and we were hosting a party for them that evening. I had to organise all the flowers, the booze and the dinner within a few hours. It was all so magical,” she adds.

And she was always impeccably turned out. She had been designing her own clothes since she was in school with the assistance of local tailors. Her friends loved her avant-garde saris, wispy things with contemporary embroideries on them. “All the filmi ladies would compliment me on my saris. People wore saris all the time then, even as college students – salwar kameezes came into fashion much later. But the saris were Kanjeevarams and silks, very few people would embroider saris,” she says. The popular embroidered sari exporter B Chorosch would be established only later.

Her husband wouldn’t let her work professionally, even though he loved how elegantly she dressed. So she launched her label Paraphernalia only in 1972, after he had passed on. Within a few years, she was exporting to some of the biggest and most glamorous departmental stores in the USA like Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman. Sister Max, the Tibetan Buddhist nun who later became a well-known exporter, showed up at Jaikishan’s doorstep. “She said she had heard I was very good and wanted to work with me. So I made a beautiful dress, but she found it too expensive. Then we worked backwards, according to her budgets. One design was just a sequinned blouse but we sold hundreds of pieces all over the US,” Jaikishan says.

Jaikishan’s contemporary at the time was Ritu Kumar. Kumar would eventually launch ready-to-wear and become a household name, but Jaikishan stayed true to her couture and bridal wear roots. “It is amazing but we never crossed paths even though at the time there were just the two of us. I always admired her work and had even picked up some saris from her,” Jaikishan says. “Sunita Pitamber was also around then, and she had this lovely boutique in Colaba behind the Taj Mahal hotel. She would make gara shirts and bags, and she was such an institution. I designed some linen for her overseas clients, so many of them were royalty and heads of states.”

Jaikishan’s popularity among the well-heeled ladies of society only grew. Her fashion shows would have Kokila Ambani, Archana and Harsh Mariwala (she is Harsh’s sister), Indira Aswani, Shweta Bachchan, Poonam Sinha and Rashmi Thackeray in the audience. One of her shows at Mumbai’s Taj Land’s End a few years ago had several erstwhile royals on the runway: Nandini Singh Jabhua, Meghna Singh Deo of Patna Bolangir, Orissa, Radhika Raje of Gaekwad, Anushka Raje Ghorpade of Sangur, Akshita Kumari Bhanjdeo of Mayurganj, Bengal, Chandni Kumari of Seohara, Uttar Pradesh.

Jaikishan’s daughter Bhairavi Jaikishan is a well-regarded designer in her own right. Daughters-in-law Roohi and Priya are both successful in their vocations – Roohi is a businesswoman and has even promoted Gucci in India, while Priya works for the esteemed auction house Pundole. What is dinner table conversation like? “A lot of fun,” laughs Jaikishan. “We talk about anything and everything under the sun. And I wish we could have dinner together more often.”

Jaikishan says she is in no mood of retiring. “I just love what I do too much. I leave home at 8.30 am and I leave the office at 6.30pm. I love what I do and I live to work.”

Namrata Zakaria is a seasoned writer and editor, and a chronicler of social and cultural trends. Her first book, on late fashion designer Wendell Rodricks’ Moda Goa museum, is due to be published shortly. Zakaria is especially known for her insider’s take on fashion, luxury and social entrepreneurship in India. Her writing is appreciated for shaping opinions, busting myths, making reputations and sometimes breaking the odd career. Zakaria is also involved in putting together philanthropic efforts in the field of economic and environmental sustainability.

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