RAO'S RITUAL: THRILLS WITHOUT FRILLS
Asmita Aggarwal (HT City)

She’s frank about the fact that she’s not in the big league yet. But Mumbai-based designer Priyadarshini Rao is clear about her plans: “Maybe I’ll have a small store in East Village, New York, where I could showcase the great work happening in India.”

Rao is one of the few designers who started with pret and stuck to it. She has no intentions of doing zardosi-laden lehngas. “Somehow, embellishments don’t fascinate me. My experience with working for Shoppers Stop taught me all about retail. And when I began, it was still a niche segment as Ritu Kumar and Rohit Bal were busy dishing out trousseau collections,” says Rao, who studied fashion design at SNDT College, Mumbai and went on to complete an intensive course in textiles and weaving from Sophia Polytechnic. However, she was tired of Shoppers Stop and wanted a break. “I went to study at the London College of Fashion Studies in ’99 for a year and learnt corsetry and jacket-making. “But when I returned clients came up to me and asked me to make sari blouses. It was very frustrating,” recalls Rao. “It was only after the Lakmé India Fashion Week last year that people actually sat up and took notice of my work,” she adds.

The young designer is excited about launching Vinegar, her exclusive boutique at Bandra. “My line will remain pret but it will be done with a difference. My niche is to design well-finished clothes you can wear during the day. My thinking is a bit bohemian – it doesn’t matter if my kurta doesn’t match my trouser,” elaborates Rao.