Hardware to Soft Wear

Rimzim Dadu shifts gears and adds motifs, inspired by Baroque, Western classical music, and architecture, to give intrepid women a flavour of innovative material manipulations.   

By Asmita Aggarwal

Engineered gowns, signature metal saris, couture has a different meaning for Rimzim Dadu, it is more of a play of textures, and that’s why Bollywood’s svelte Sobhita Dhulipala in a white seemed to be the perfect muse.

The dhoti is having its moment, it’s unisex, equally loved by both so are her corsets, as we all marvelled at the way she folds, moulds, tough metal into flowers, petals, beating them into submission. Sequins were placed ingeniously to create pixelated embroidery, I also liked how she took the steam out of couture and told us it could be worn with flats.

The interesting aspect about interviewing Rimzim, is she confesses, her husband tells her, he can talk better about the brand than she can, she giggles and tells me. The designer known for her heady experimentations with acrylic, leather, steel, metal, mostly hardware, which she smoothly converts into soft wear, is a quiet samurai. She launched her menswear label, opened a store in Delhi, says, “inclusion and sustainability are much abused words”; she launched a line called “Disco”, which is very unlike her personality—reticent. “I wanted to offer men something cool, edgy, and fun. I felt there was a gap,” she admits.

She confesses, most throw around difficult words, without practicing it —just because you add one plus-size, or dark-skinned model, “it doesn’t make it cool, rather it seems like a marketing tool”.

“I don’t believe in trends; I want to create something which is relevant 30 years down the line—a classic. Neither do I study the market, as bridal wear is a very tricky zone. Brides so far like to be safe, but in the last few years have seen a seismic shift, they want to push the proverbial envelope, and abandon herd mentality,” she explains. It was uphill mentally to see brides embracing outfits made of steel for their D-day.

When Dadu began, the belief was to be an antithesis of fashion, offer clothing that breaks away from the norm or any set restrictions, and this year for ICW 2024, it is no different. She developed or rather delved into a unique visual language inspired by the Baroque style of architecture. “There is Western classical music that held me in awe, also architecture which I interpreted through my own vocabulary of cording, twisting, surface texturing. The only change is we have attempted to create motifs, which we never did before,” she explains.

When she began, almost 15 years ago, Dadu confesses, she was before her time, the market was not ready, she was embarking on a new direction. “When you run a business, you have to gauge the audience, it must be a sweet balance between innovation, and marketability,” she admits.

To achieve a Baroque look-she created a POP (plaster of Paris) type of appeal, thus the line is titled “Stucco”. Besides new surfaces, they have traditional themes, zardozi, the first time it has been executed, a new one for Dadu.

Working with hardware comes with unpredictability, but 15 years of experience has taught her how to make materials malleable, how to stitch a steel sari, even though it came with no rule book. “There was R and D that saved us, trial, and error, we also understood how to protect, and finish our pieces. How to tame materials, initially it was challenging, even now we face roadblocks,” she admits adding, artisans whom she trained in the processes have been with her from the beginning. “Making samples is one thing, but how a garment will sit on a body is another ball game,” she adds.

Dadu launched couture three years ago, she enjoys meeting brides, she is learning every day, and says she is still in the “honeymoon period” of crafting couture, it does not seem like a chore or monotonous. Over the years, she has chosen various faces that match her brand identity—Ananya Pandey — she is a Gen Z style chameleon; Vijay Varma for taking the road less travelled, as he enjoys dressing. If you ask Dadu whom she admires in the couture space it would be Schiaparelli, and what Daniel Roseberry has done with the Italian label.

“India is changing rapidly, there is effortlessness in couture, which is my favorite part,” she concludes.