India’s stalwart designer Narendra Kumar Ahmed completes a decade of fashion indulgence and creative frontiers this year. Nari (as he is fondly called) has been known for drawing the perfect justice in fashion and style terms to bizarre and most abstracts of inspiration. A part of the first ever graduating class from National Institute of Fashion Technology Nari anchored on the shores of Mumbai to fill colours in his creative canvas. Fashionfad.in goes over fashion prodigy conversations with Nari as he is busy creating NarisWorld for the 10th anniversary show for LFW.
How has been the journey of your fashion career?
The journey has been a great evolution as a brand and as designer equally. Earlier when I had designed my first collection it was more a reflection of my own self, then it was all about me. But now with the understanding of market and the consumers the label has graduated to position for every collection or line is focused on the market and its specific demands. So the attachment is very different from then and now. There has been a drastic growth in the market as well in the past ten years and the outlook has changed exponentially in fashion. Today we are moving more towards western silhouettes and are faster in accepting and also faster at accessing global trends and fashion forecasts.
What is the 10th anniversary collection all about?
It’s the Mumbai women……..an entirely womenswear range the collection will celebrate ‘the new woman’. Loaded and oozing with the oomph, style and street smart attitude of the neo Mumbai working class women the line picks up it cues from style tribe of the women who is best at everything be it fashion, work, home, kids and still holds the very essence of Indian woman. And her act of balancing multiple responsibilities she finds time and spells an everlasting attitude of the bold and beautiful.
The colour palette has been kept light and gets you high on soft hues of beiges, white etc. More importantly the entire collection is an ode to Indian fabric completely hand dyed. The Mumbai women line is also takes pride in high tailoring of Indian fabric and craft into western silhouettes.
How do you envision your brands future?
The brand’s future lies in the proper penetration and firm hold of the retail market and thus we are focusing our energy towards developing our retail presence. Apart from that fashion in India has also come a long way and the fashion scene here definitely is on spree to rule the fashion market globally. Thus we can see that this is just the beginning but the coronation ceremony is very near.
Apart from designing what are you equally enthusiastic about?
I am also a part of a talent show on MTV which is for the upcoming designers and models who have the confidence and the right ingredient to churn out the best for these fields. Presently we are shooting for their season II series, going to be aired very soon. It’s a great pleasure to watch and also help young people who are working hard to make their mark in the fashion industry. The design talent has improved a lot from the last season and even the quality of models which is reflective of the growing awareness of fashion in our society.
