Reynu Taandon abandons her jewelled tones for pastel pastures as polkis and pearls liven her ICW line that dazzled with gotta and mirror work.
By Asmita Aggarwal
There was a time not long ago, when Hauz Khas Village was new, Bina Ramani was the most coveted name in the style business and Bindiya Jain, then married to one of the most powerful men in the country, ran a very successful store called Signature, mind you, only for the affluent. It serviced the richest families in the capital and thats where Reynu Taandon found space, way back in the late 80s and early 90s.
I used to do couture from home, but Bindiya and Priya (Vaswani) convinced me to retail from Signature and from there began my journey, almost 18 years ago, says Reynu.
There were only a handful of designers like J.J. Valaya, Abu-Sandeep, who have survived the onslaught of GST, time and demonitisation, political climate upheavals, and have been Reynu contemporaries in the trousseau market. There have been several ferocious turns and twists in Reynus career too—- MG Road was demolished, her store in Chatterpur shut down, but she never gave up and chugged along keeping a sharp eye on exports to the Middle East and dressing NRI brides, as well as supplying to Anthropologie and Harvey Nichols. We used to do badla, heavy borders and ethnic colours like reds, orange, purple, fuschia when we began. Now all that has changed, girls want a touch of Western in their Indian ensembles, she says.
With hair going minimal and nude make up becoming the order of the day, Reynu believes couture has to match its steps, hence the entry of pastels. This is also due to Anushka Sharma and Virat Kohlis Italian wedding where the bride wore subtle colours rather than the obvious maroon, sparking a trend of sorts making it the most sought after with 70 per cent brides wanting watered down shades. I have never done pastels and it was quite frankly a challenge for me, even my daughter Nikhita was surprised. As last year I did Cyan which was all about turquoise and aqua-marine, she admits.
The three things that form the basis of her trek to stardom has been gotta, mirror work and threadwork and each year these appear in different avatars. This year she imagined a bride in a garden wedding somewhere in Europe thus, the title Once Upon a Dream, for not just 20-year-olds but also career women who get married after 30. It is not a collection just for the bride, but bridesmaids, sisters and friends of the family. I never went to a fashion school, so whatever I do, I do instinctively, the moodboard is all about my colour story and then I work on my mixing and blending. I am used to jewelled tones of emerald and reds, but now I had to be slightly sedate though I did add just a dollop of Swarovski, she smiles.
There were flashes of vivacity in her gold foiling and printing as chanderi and net formed the fulcrum. Her showstopper Yami Gautam wore a lehenga with 120 metres of net, one of the few pieces of Anarkalis and skirts that had that much weight. Gotta too came but it was manipulated into a triangle, and used along with marori, just as kiran dori and zari accentuated the mirror work. However minimal we become no bride will wear a cotton sari to her wedding, she giggles, adding, They will wear maybe not a pink but a peach or a mehendi green with thread work rather than zardosi, so all this talk about couture losing is sheen is really not true.
