Engineered panels, ombre dyed, rouched, Gaurav Jagtiani decides to channel simple Chevrons, hand quilting and interplay of stripes.
By Asmita Aggarwal
Gaurav Jagitiani is a designer who’s unafraid to start again, experiment with new ideas, change according to what the market demands, reinvent himself. Could we attribute this to his Bengali mother and Sindhi father, maybe he won a genetic lottery? He aced the Nexa competition for his label Line Tribe, as the platform is geared towards creative expression, designers with a vision.
Over the last 20 years Gaurav has had many stints, Line Tribe began six years ago, offering natty gender fluid clothing with a distinctive sense of newness, peppered with androgyny. “Everyone wants to be a better version of themselves; I look at experimentation, as Indians we were slow to start, have a strong desire to fit in,” he says.
The brief in the 90s when he started was to “look rich”, get a logo-soaked designer bag, Europe holiday, spin around in a BMW or Phantom, but social media has democratized fashion. “In our country there are many diktats—dusky skin colour ‘don’t wear this’, hips large ‘won’t look good on you’. Now you can dress in what you like and get 2000 thumbs up on IG, your husband may be rich, but wives have their unique personality,” he adds. It may not be Tarun Tahiliani or Abu Sandeep Khosla, but the affluent now want to wear a pant-suit to dinner which no one ever dreamed of.
Humor is what makes Gaurav unique, some of his one-liners are priceless. “44-inch kurti we call it a dress, put a little embroidery on it and husband won’t have anything bad to say, now all ages are wearing a dress,” he laughs, adding it is no longer that you are skinny, so only you can wear a halter. The fear of looking different has vanished!
He wanted to start a line that doesn’t have his name, separate from his identity, “it leads to too much complication, trademark, IP issues. I believe a brand must have an independent identity,” he smiles. He is queer, felt alone, many times, it was an isolating experience, you have to solve your own riddles, find your community, your tribe. “There are so many hopes, questions, the tribe helps you survive, you have a chosen family, shared lived experience,” he explains. Line Tribe is not a mainstream brand, they don’t do any paid promotion, never done influencer marketing, but Masoom Minawala wore him in Davos, Sakshi Sindhwani at Harvard talk, GQ had Ishaan Khattar and Yami Gautam in Femina.
“Now there is no value of a magazine feature, everything is paid, I won’t play, I will do it my way, channel integrity. Does it matter if you write glowing articles when I’ve paid for it?” he laughs.
“I don’t need friends, I need clients, if your product is good, you will do well,” he adds. Painting, reading are his past- times, so for LFW it is about intersectionality, identity, self-expression, politics, keeping house codes intact. “Ukraine war, economic showdown, inflation affects him, there is despair, grief in the world, but we are resilient, Saudi is suffering, so we relooked our offerings,” he says.
Who cares about a pretty dress when people are dying? “I don’t live in a bubble, in an AC room holding champagne, talk about exports. We don’t need to talk about zardosi, this isn’t fashion, is it? But I choose to be positive, empowered, I’m questioning my role as a clothes maker, and my inspiration isn’t my last holiday in Mykonos, when reefs are dying,” he admits.
This ability to debate, reason and use logic comes from his parents, both avid readers, bohemian, with roots in Kolkata. Gaurav lived in a largely feminist home, he may have a Sindhi last name, but he is Bengali in his value system. For him it isn’t about your pin code, but how gracefully you live your life.
“We don’t use polyester, indulge in hand quilting, powerful shapes, I can’t do corsetry in khadi. You will see engineered panels, ombre dyed, also rouched. I don’t do prints, play is simple, Chevrons, multiple stripes and suiting materials. You can feel happy in my clothes,” he concludes.