Age and time have taught Rimzim Dadu the importance of merging commerce with fantasy, this year her Banjara tribal jewellery inspired chainmail dress took one month to execute, just like her rejigged sari not swathed in metres of fabric-happily crisp.
By Asmitaa Aggaarwal
Once upon a time Rimzim Dadu’s steel saris were looked upon as an anomaly, but that was almost 18 years ago, when lehengas were red, zardozi weighed them down. As fashion and the audience has evolved, Dadu calls herself a “rebel, out to prove a point”. At 21, she didn’t care about commerce, though today she realises it takes a lot of maturity to finally run a business. “I think I have found a sweet spot to do what I want to, discovering my own voice, and an audience that accepts my aesthetic,” she adds.
Instagram, she feels, has really evolved the public perception of style, though the intelligentsia may despise it, it isn’t frivolous. If anyone follows me they know exactly what’s new, what I am thinking, it is now a democratic process nondependent on traditional media,” she adds.
Indian fashion is now looked upon with respect, also curiosity, we are no longer a manufacturing hub, crafts and artisans are the showstoppers, but there is room for many India stories. “There is India traditional, modern, and futuristic. Our traditional weave had been heavily dependent on motifs and embellishment, so what’s wrong with shine? I don’t find it repulsive. Even if you look at Jamdani it is white, but the motifs on it give it that unique character,” she admits.
Dadu is experimental, develops new textiles, drawing boards, and karigars envision how to upcycle what is traditionally looked at as waste. “Sometimes it takes ten failed attempts to get things right,” she says, adding, “We start again if we feel it is not going how we planned.”
The language of bridal couture has altered enormously; steel saris earlier brides would ask if they could check with their mom-in-law, before buying, now they are the decision makers. Cliché is out; everyone wants to look bolder. “Couture now has elevated craftsmanship, it is a vision, our metallic jewel tones, and a whole new section of gunmetal grey this season is a big risk I have taken. Even though I don’t like to work on set themes,” she says.
Her inspiration this year has been Banjara tribes and their vivacious jewellery, Dadu has done Patola in the past, this year she has fallen in love with Bandhani, the knots, used as an embellishment rather than in whole. “For me fashion is art, so the skirt that we made with metal and steel interlinked inspired by tribal jewellery, a chainmail structure, took one month to make after several failures, just one piece,” she smiles.
Though Dadu is a woman of finer tastes—she wants to do things other than clothing—maybe lights, textiles, sculpture. “Though what helps is switching off and living in my bubble,” she grins. That’s why her new “streamlined” lehenga (not using 20 but 2 metres of fabric) or playing with a new way of draping “palla”, after detailed R & D is what ICW 2025 saw. Cording, steel wires, in sherwanis, bandhgalas, bomber jackets, it has been a journey of following her passion, even as the new mother Dadu finds “solace” when she works relentlessly to create stand out pieces.