Nandita Basu

Nandita Basu studied Fashion Design and Clothing Technology at the National Institute of Fashion Technology and further at Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design in London.

Nandita Basu studied Fashion Design and Clothing Technology at the National Institute of Fashion Technology and further at Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design in London. She also worked with designer Suneet Varma for several years. After her return to India, she set up her own design studio. She sells under her own label 'Nandita Basu'.

Nandita has been showing her collection at the India Fashion Week for the last three years. Her interest lies primarily in womenswear - skirts, Tshirts, shirts, tops, jackets, coats, trousers etc. She loves working with a wide variety of fabrics like wool, denim, lycra, cotton, silk, georgette and linen. Her main focus is on surface textures. She uses various techniques such as kantha, appliquework, quilting, hand embroidery etc. There are certain trademark techniques that she uses such as her leather strips embroidery and the 3D cutout textures which are unique to her work. She uses off beat patterncutting techniques. Nandita enjoys using traditional art and craft techniques but in a contemporary manner. Nandita's clothes have a classic appeal yet are quirky. She also enjoys working on interesting detailing and finishes. She feels that fit, finish and form are three important elements of designer clothing.She also pays a lot of attention to tailoring and construction.

Nandita also works on corporate projects involving styling, design and manufacture. She was instrumental in styling and designing the look for TV news channels Tara and Aaj Tak along with fellow designer Abhishek Gupta.

In January 2004, Nandita received the award for Breakthrough Designer of the Year at the Kingfisher Fashion Awards held in Goa. She had a show in Mumbai in March 2004 to showcase a clubwear collection. She currently retails from her signature store at 1 MG Road in New Delhi.

Fall-Winter 2004, IFW : Nandita Basu's collection for IFW this year is focussed on western womenswear. The colour pallette consists of strong colours - black,chocolate brown, charcoal mixed with bright colours like lime green, orange, red, dull turquoise blue. The silhouette has become more narrow with a lot of ruched pants, skinny pleated trousers,textured pants with ribbed bottoms coupled with short bomber jackets and knee length coats as well as skirts above the knee and short skirts. Basu has played a lot with wool and leather and mixed them with cottons and georgettes. She has used a her signature textures like leather strips embroidery, leather applique, patchwork. There is a strong emphasis on tailoring as well.