'What's next for me would be global expansion, which is challenging and exciting.'
Key Points
- 'I want to put a lot of spotlight on Indian artisans, their work and made in India.'
- 'Karan was bowled over with the sketches and our mood board and the hard work began... '
- 'I still do one or two movies and my mainstream business is now 20 years old.'
"I'm really looking forward to dressing up Madonna and Meryl Streep," Manish Malhotra tells Subhash K Jha.
Manish, to what do we owe this incredible aesthetics that does India proud?
India is so rich in heritage and tradition, culture, colour, textile, skill and artisans. As a mainstream designer who is looking to move ahead on global platforms, which is the exciting challenge for my 20-year-old label, one thing is sure: I want to put a lot of spotlight on Indian artisans, their work and made in India.
This was my second time at the Met Gala. Last year being my first -- dressing Natasha Poonawala, young American singer Coco Jones, doing jewellery buttons for Rihanna.
And this time?
This time it was about the theme. Costume art was special as I come from the world of costumes.
For my personal outfit I wanted to pay a tribute to my city Mumbai and acknowledge the hard work of my design team, skilled workers, my atelier on a global platform.
Besides Karan Johar, who else did you dress this year at the Met Gala?
Sudha Reddy being from Hyderabad, I wanted it to be based on art and craft from her region so we did embroidery inspired by Kalamkari. We embroidered a tree of life which depicts the emotion of timelessness.
For the young Riverdale actress Camila Mendes it was an outfit which had texture like brush strokes to a painting like Amrita Shergill's art.
And your showstopper?
Our showstopper Karan Johar... We spoke and he told me he was going. We were both happy about that. He mentioned Raja Ravi Verma the classic artist and I liked the idea. Me and my design team immediately got down to designing and sketching and then had a zoom meeting with Karan and his stylist Ekta Lakhani. I was in London that's why the zoom call.
Karan was bowled over with the sketches and our mood board and the hard work began... painting, 3D printing, embroidery and then again painting and the vintage zardosi embroidery, texturising the silk and then all the detailing to the art piece... took days of hard work.
How do you look back on your extraordinary romance with fabrics?
Subhash, speaking about me, my 35 years as a costume designer. I still do one or two movies and my mainstream business is now 20 years old.
With the investment from Reliance, which happened about four years ago, where I'm 60% and they are 40%.
Having a flagship store in Dubai, what's next for me would be global expansion, which is challenging and exciting.
Which is the one celebrity you haven't dressed and would like to?
Having worked with every actor in India from their fathers like Chunky Pandey to Ananya, Janhvi to Khushi to Sridevi ma'am... what I really look forward to is dressing Meryl Streep, one of my most favorite actresses, and Madonna.
Madonna is an original, a classic, like as they say, OG.
I've worked with Beyonce, I've worked with Rihanna. I've worked with Jennifer Lopez as well. So I'm really looking forward to dressing up Madonna and Meryl Streep.
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff
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