Pioneering Indian fashion designer dies at 63

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Pioneering Indian fashion designer dies at 63
Getty Images Indian fashion designer Rohit Bal walks on the ramp during the Indian Bridal Fashion Week 2013 held at The Grand on July 26, 2013 in New Delhi, India. Getty Images

Bal’s designs were marked by a deep understanding of Indian textiles

Rohit Bal, one of India’s most celebrated fashion designers, has died aged 63 after a long period of illness.

The Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI) announced his death in a post on Instagram, saying that his work “redefined Indian fashion”.

One of India’s first designers, Bal popularised fashion designing as a viable, glamorous profession in the 1990s and many who came after him credit him for their success.

He had been forced to take a prolonged break due to ill health but made an emotional comeback just weeks ago.

“We will always need a Rohit Bal around to show what classic elegance is – and why it crosses the generational divide,” said an article in The Indian Express newspaper after Bal, looking frail but delighted, appeared alongside his models at the grand finale of the India Fashion Week in October.

Bal’s designs won acclaim for his deep understanding of Indian textiles and meticulous attention to detail.

His innovative creations were worn by Hollywood stars and supermodels and he became synonymous with blending India’s rich cultural heritage with a contemporary flair.

FDCI/Instagram Bal (centre) had made an emotional comeback to the fashion scene just weeks agoFDCI/Instagram

Bal (centre) had made an emotional comeback to the fashion scene just weeks ago

Born in Srinagar in Indian-administered Kashmir in 1961, Bal graduated from Delhi’s St Stephens College with an honours degree in history. He then worked in his family’s export business for a few years, learning the ropes.

After completing his formal education in fashion design at the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) in Delhi, Bal embarked on a journey that would redefine Indian fashion.

He set up his own label and designer line in 1990 and later opened several stores in India, the Middle East and Europe.

Getty Images Bollywood actors Katrina Kaif and Ranbir Kapoor seen either side of fashion designer Rohit Bal. He is wearing a dark jumper and a tribly hatGetty Images

Bollywood stars Katrina Kaif and Ranbir Kapoor with Bal at Indian Fashion Week in 2015

On his website, Bal described himself as a designer who “combines the right mix of history, folklore, village craft, and dying arts to create imaginative and innovative masterpieces for catwalks and fashion talks”.

In 1996, Time magazine listed him as India’s ‘Master of fabric and fantasy’.

Bal’s designs reached far and wide, with Hollywood actress Uma Thurman and supermodels Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell and Pamela Anderson wearing his creations. In 2001, tennis star Anna Kournikova walked the ramp for his Paris show.

Best known for his use of lotus and peacock motifs, Bal used rich fabrics like velvet and brocade – his designs were elaborate, inspired by Indian grandeur and royalty.

Getty Images Bollywood actress Sonam Kapoor shows clothes designed by Rohit Bal during Indian Bridal Fashion Week in 2013. Bal walks with her through a crowdGetty Images

Bollywood actress Sonam Kapoor shows clothes designed by Bal during Indian Bridal Fashion Week in 2013

Apart from designing clothes in his own label, Bal lent his name to endorse products from shoes to linen, had tie-ups with textile giants like the Aditya Birla Group and even ventured into designing jewellery and luxury watches.

He also opened a line for children, saying that he believed that “children are a major consumer class in urban India”.

Bal crafted costumes for the widely-watched Indian game show Kaun Banega Crorepati (Who Wants to be a Millionaire?) and designed costumes for the cabin crew of British Airways.

He unveiled his inaugural prĂȘt line for online retailer Jabong in 2014.

“I want to separate Rohit Bal from the House of Bal – in products as well as style, in expensiveness and expanse,” Bal told Shefalee Vasudev in Mint newspaper.

“Rohit Bal stores (there will be no prĂȘt here) will be special. People come to me only for special things – they want garments that are like handmade pieces of art. I have it in me to balance the right and left sides of my creative and business leanings.”

Getty Images Rohit Bal, fashion designer, during a curtain call from New Delhi, India, December 21, 1996. Bal designs for both men and womenGetty Images

Bal at a curtain call after a show in Delhi in 1996

When I met Bal years ago in his studio, his characteristic flamboyance was evident in dazzling neon coloured silks embellished with intricate embroidery; sleek blouses and skirts along with taffeta skirts and netted blouses, in bright, warm and cool colours.

“Fabric is the seed of designing a garment, it is the lifeblood of fashion,” he told me.

His earliest memories of fabric were totally sensory, he said, recalling the downy feel of a jamawar shawl at home in Srinagar and the soft warmth of his mother’s shahtoosh saris.

His early years in Srinagar contributed to what he described as a “blissful childhood”. The idyllic life, he said, was disrupted by the violence in the region, compelling the family to relocate to Delhi.

Bal remembered embarking on a sartorial adventure at the age of 11 when he coaxed his father into a tailor’s shop in Delhi to craft his own cowboy pants adorned with tassels.

Getty Images Rohit Bal, Fashion Designer at Veda Restaurant in Connaught Place, New Delhi, India on Monday, July 30, 2007. Getty Images

Bal opened his own restaurant in Delhi

Bal also diversified into the restaurant business and designed the interiors of one of Delhi’s posh restaurants, Veda, whose opulent and extravagant interiors created a buzz in the Indian media.

He told me it was also okay with him if foreign brands like Armani or Hilfiger came to take up high street space in India.

“They can’t do what I can with Indian designs,” Bal said.

His flamboyant lifestyle prompted the Indian media to call him “the bad boy of fashion”.

“People see me in photographs surrounded by pretty models and think that I am a snobbish, high-maintenance designer who is about beauty and hedonism. When they meet me, they realise how fake that perception is,” he told Vasudev.

Getty Images Models wear clothes designed by Rohit Bal during the final of Indian Fashion Week in 2015. A man in the centre of the image is wearing an orange sherwani, a blue sash, and red turban.Getty Images

Models wear clothes designed by Bal during the final of Indian Fashion Week in 2015

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