Creative director of the new age label, Bhaane, Nimish Shah grew up around textiles. Coming from a family that helmed their own textile business, Nimish tells me he never had the opportunity to romaniticise textiles. He vividly recalls how a wide variety of textiles always kept him company, be it during summer holidays or otherwise. He even grew up napping on pails of fabric — it was everyday business. While his childhood helped strengthen his affinity for fabric, the awareness and technical know-how of fashion developed over the years and there has been no looking back ever since.
Below, Nimish tells us more about Bhaane’s new collection, Normal People.
Normal People
It was always about this investigation into what makes us modern, global Indians and what is it that we consume through referring to oral history, objects and experiences. It could even be an exploration of a legacy brand, this is where Apsara and Nataraj fall in place with our current collection. I’ve always looked at generic design — it’s present in a staircase, in a lamppost. And because it is omnipresent, you can’t quite distinguish whether it’s good or bad design, which is what applies to branding for legacy brands that don’t perceive the need to change it because they’re selling a product and not their logo, which makes it so solid. Apsara and Nataraj seamlessly fitted into this narrative, we all used their pencils and erasers as Indian kids. They had monopolised that particular product and had a participation in every Indian’s education.
The Process
For me, all creative processes are interlinked. A lot of it is tapping into memory and observation, current affairs, and mind mapping the seed of an idea. For this collection, it was the WhatsApp message — it was so generic and so loosely available, largely consumed. It was about penetrating into how it impacts every single one of us, the disdain and disregard for that design. On the other hand, Apsara was more opportunity driven, as soon as we knew we could use it, we deep dived into the archives and then expanded it into various channels. Besides the art and craft symbolism and approach, we also explored the associated lingo. We have something called the ‘Rubbed Tee’ that reflects the vernacular way of saying rubber as well as an adult take on what rubber means. It’s an internal discussion of terminology, their experiences, how we take those memories, make it relevant for today and see it from a modern lens.
The Fashion of Now
Fashion is redefining every decade and it is about self image and creating unique identities. We've gone past the time where people wanted to look like a part of a clan or a particular aesthetic — there’s a little bit of everything. Today, personalities are a trend, public figures are a trend, and while they can influence a certain look, people are adapting and they don’t want to blindly ape a certain influencer. Fashion is and should be a lot more inclusive, more sensitive, more about the make of the garment, the producers. After all, it is an intimate object, it’s second skin.
The Future
Busy from a work stand point, lots of ideas, lots of collaborations coming up. We want to go back to the original notion of the brand of gathering people together, so we’ll hopefully plan a Bhaane Live session very soon.
Text Unnati Saini
Photography Prerna Nainwal
Date 09-03-2022
