Spice May issue ipad LR

THE INTERVIEW
ROHIT BAL
better than that. In his nearly threedecades-long
career, he has created
gorgeous garments, set his own style,
mentored designers as well as models,
expanded his horizons, broken
conventions, courted controversy, and
managed to stay at the top, through it all.
His latest venture is a partnership with
spicestyle.com, the new e-commerce
retail venture from SpiceJet. Bal recently
got candid with us, on pretty much
everything under the sun.
FROM BRICK TO CLICK
AVANT GARDE DESIGNER ROHIT BAL
COLLABORATES WITH SPICEJET,
AND TALKS PAST, PRESENT AND
FUTURE OF FASHION.
BY PRERNA SINGH BUTALIA
When Rohit Bal started
designing, in the late
’80s, and then
launched his own
label in 1990, fashion was a distant
concept, to most. As Bal himself puts it,
“The first 15 years or so, we were only
trying to convince everybody that we are
‘fashion designers’, that there’s a
difference between ‘fashion’ and
‘making clothes’. And, unlike now, when
there’s room for everybody, back then, it
really was about survival of the fittest!”
And survive he did. In fact, he did much
ON JOINING HANDS WITH
SPICEJET
SpiceJet decided we should get together,
and when they approached me, I figured
why not. It sounded like an interesting
project and because of how it’s
streamlined—I design and they take care
of the production. It also appealed to me
because it helps me reach out to more
people, without diluting the brand—the
pricing is conservative; it’s reasonable
but not cheap. So the urban, upwardlymobile,
young, working people, with
disposable income, who may aspire to
own a ‘designer label’ but can’t afford to,
or won’t (because in India, our priorities
are more family-centric), spend Rs
35,000 on a pair of Gucci sunglasses,
wouldn’t mind spending Rs 12,000 to
own a Rohit Bal! So while this isn’t my
first line with a more friendly pricing—I
have a line called Balance by Rohit Bal,
which is my prêt collection, of which I
have six stores (we plan to open 40,
across India), I am, now, trying to get
across to as many people as possible.
That top-of-the-line, most expensive
designer thing… It’s now done and
dusted. I’m done with ‘being no 1’. Now, I
just want to make top quality products
and reach more people. And this line, for
Spicestyle, is going to help me do that,
with an e-presence, and a line that’s
marketed well and smartly enough for
me to be able to retail it out of my own
stores as well.
56
MAY 2017