Top Notch | Fashion guru Monisha Jaising: 'We make a product that speaks to a modern India'

I HAVE been a longtime fan, customer and friend of fashion designer Monisha Jaising. A season’s greeting phone call turned out to be a great opportunity to interview her– Mumbai girl Jaising is in New Delhi opening a new store here in the next few days, in the capital city’s Defence Colony neighbourhood. Her previous store in Delhi was at the swishy DLF Emporio mall, shuttered during the pandemic, and she just couldn’t find the next perfect space.

Jaising, 56, knows a thing or two about real estate. Her father the late Narain Bhojwani has built half of Mumbai’s tony Bandra area, with several buildings named after immediate family members. The building named ‘Monisha’ is home to movie stars Chunky Panday and daughter Ananya Panday.

“I was never drawn to real estate, although my father was very artistic. There was always talk of architecture and interior design at home. It’s ironic because he had been a professor at the London School of Economics, before he moved to India and got into developing properties. I was only interested in dressing people up,” she laughs. Her first showcase was actually in school when she was among a few students to be chosen to design march-past uniforms, and ended up with the first prize. There was no fashion in India, only ladies talors. A course in fashion illustration from the Royal College of Arts, London, followed. She ended up participating in an exhibition and sale at the St James Court Hotel, of the Taj group, along with James Ferreira of Mumbai. “I saw how amazing he was, and how all the foreigners were lapping up his clothes. I thought he was amazing,” she remembers.

When she moved back to Mumbai, India’s first multi-designer store Ensemble was just being set up. “My husband Ravi was reading about someone called Tarun Tahiliani on a flight, and that he was setting up this amazing new concept store,” she laughs. This was in 1989. “He said I should meet him, and so I did. When I walked into Ensemble I saw how gorgeous it was – so ahead of its time, and filled with such stylish stuff from Tarun, Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla, Rohit Bal, Rohit Khosla and Sunita Kapoor, Sonam’s mum!” Tahiliani loved her clothes, and offered her a rack there.

Jaising’s clothes were really uncommon at the time. Unlike the lehengas and Indian occasion wear that was quite the norm, she offered a very easy mix of east and west. They were so glamorous, but they had so much Indianness in them. Embellished jeans, spangled gowns, tshirts with sequins – she quickly earned the title of being the princess of bohemian luxury. “I love India and I always use India in every collection of mine/ But I am also influenced by different cultures of the world, so there’s always a jugalbandi between India and the world,” she explains.

Perhaps her greatest contribution to Indian fashion has been the invention of the kurti. She was commissioned to design sarongs and swimsuit coverups for a well known store called Whistles in London. She thought of chopping the length of an Indian kurta and letting the bikini bottom peep from the sides. “They rejected it as they thought it was too Indian, and I was stuck with 12 sample pieces. I put them on my rack at Ensemble, and soon enough, Tina Tahiliani called to tell me she wanted more and more of them,” Jaising laughs. The kurti, or the short kurta is now a staple of Indian wear, and sold by every designer in the country, and even stores such as Fabindia and Anokhi. Jaising sent some pieces to Selfridge’s, and then at India’s first Lakme India Fashion Week. “The thing just took a life of its own then,” she laughs.
Jaising has remained consistent in her aesthetics, her style and shapes have remained seasonless for decades. “I’m not a great businesswoman, I liked making clothes I would like to wear. So I ended up staying true to my core, instead of only making wedding wear catering to India’s giant trousseau market. I don’t care for price tags, yet I chose to reinvent the kurti at a friendly price,” she reasons.

She also keeps a firm eye on what the young are wearing. So her clothes appeal to multiple generations of women who belong to her vibe. This doesn’t mean the mother wears a sari and the daughter the lehenga, it means both want to wear the same sexy piece. “It’s really all about making an amazing product, and we make a product that speaks to a modern India.”
Jaising also launched a collab line with Shweta Bachchan, a friend and a customer. “It’s going well, we did our first fashion show at the Lakme Fashion Week in 2021 and are revamping its online business.”

Jaising says she wants to remain in control of her business and isn’t looking at corporate investments like many of her contemporaries. “They king of take over the business and I don’t think I am ready for that yet,” she says. She also has her own manufacturing factory in Mumbai which churns out tshirts and athleisure, giving her the scale that few others can afford.

For now, she just wants to open a few stores in new cities (after Mumbai and New Delhi), and allow her customers to be transported into a world of laidback luxury, where each item can be worn with both sneakers and heels.

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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