Varun Bahl is clear, couture is a marriage between fantasy and your signature style
Think of what starlight
And lamplight would lack
Diamonds and fireflies
If they couldnt lean against Black. . . .
-Mary ONeill, Hailstones and Halibut Bones
Black is Varun Bahls new love, and he will continue to hand hold it, this season too! After last years ode to this hue, Varun, admits the main story will revolve around it but for a dose of freshness infused with a little help from minty pastels. This time, it is going to be an amalgamation of the old and new, ancient with contemporary and as colour and embellishment is my forte, thats where the game will begin, he adds.
Adding new placements, motifs and colours, Varun agrees that tradition must be honoured, but with that he is quick to say that we need to change the way we look at vintage, reinterpret it and make it fit for a woman of today.
Confessing to be his own worst critic—–it is simple yet innovative silhouettes that he is attempting to court for the PCJ Couture Week. I like women like director Kiran Rao, she can carry what she wears with a dignified silence, so it becomes a part of her individual style and looks effortless too, which is the nucleus of good dressing, he smiles.
His muses and inspirations have evolved with time, as Varun too has maturedin his design sensibility; so a lot of what he does is people connected—–from observing people, whether they are socialites, just plain, ordinary working women or those who lead a dull, daily life. Earlier I was plagued by self doubt, but now I know where I stand, where I want to do and how I will get there. Reason tells me slow and steady is the way to go, he adds.
Interestingly, he is honest enough to admit that even though a designer evolves and grows he is caught in a rut as the consumer is still stuck in a time warp. I think it is too far-fetched to say that a bride will wear anything but a lehenga or sari. So gowns or versions of it for me, dont work. The challenge is to make that lehenga look extraordinary is what keeps you on your toes. And honestly for me, the process of finding a middle path between what I dream about and reality is what keeps me engaged. But the process eventually helps you find the path, he laughs.
And with age, Varun has also learnt that to grow you need a definite a blueprint; so he is chalking out a 5-year plan for his company for the first time. I also have many personal goals; travelling, moving out of Delhi most definitely in the next five years and seeing a lot more of the country is on the cards, he concludes.