A successful Fashion Designer and an entrepreneur with 19 years of hands on experience with whole sale and retail business traverse the career chart of Anuradha P. Dhawan.
The label Anu P.D. was started in 1991, and then retailing it from her store called Naayaab Fashions (in Hauz Khas Village) and Gyan’s in Karol Bagh and Greater Kailash. The early 90’s was a time when Indian fashion meant tent-like salwar kameez suits. At that time Anu went laterally and used her training as a Western Wear designer to do a lot of Mix ‘n’ Match, as Fusion was called those days. This mixing and matching of fabrics, set color combos and innovative value-addition techniques is the hallmark of the “Anu P.D.” label.
Her scholastic attainments include:
- Workshops on fashion forecast and trends from Trend Polytechnic U.K (1988)
- Clothing Technology by Prof. G.S Dhapodkar NIFT ( 1989)
- CEO and Managing Partner for A4A Hospitality Private limited ( 1991- till date)
- On the Panel of NCTD (National Centre Of textile Design) since 2001
- Design project at Diamond Industries Varanasi, 2001
- Design project at National Centre for Jute Diversification, Kolkata (2010)
Designing with fresh feel and energy that infuses in Anu’s creations, she derives her inspiration even from being in a fabric store, on a holiday, being at a great dance performance, viewing an art show or reading a good book.
Anu acknowledges her journey as a Designer as eventful, colorful by virtue of having good work experiences and coming in contact with some good people and their work. She measures the true milestone of success as the ability to read the pulse of the audience or consumer. Thus Anu has been able to predict in sync with Fashion Forecast and the trends, have come naturally to her designs.
The rise of the awareness and purchasing power in the Indian Middle class has been unprecedented & demand for a good quality prêt is here. Anu advocates Green Fashion and definitely, since environment consciousness is now a common man’s demand, safeguarding larger interests of the globe will be in order. She believes that these can be managed with better environment friendly business practices in the Fashion industry and all around.
In future at the label Anu P.D, clothes will become multi-functional & work wear might very well disappear! And she visions the label to be affordable, yet exclusive in their story-telling and use local influences along with that of other creative & performing Arts, like Musical or Literary themes.
