Lakme India Fashion Week 2003 :: Anamika Khanna

Bohemian Rhapsody
She sits bolt upright in her chaise with the deportment of a ballet dancer. Even at 30, she’s little and neat like a dancer. "Since this morning, I’ve seen toiles (garment reproduced in muslin for fitting or for making copies), toiles, toiles, and now I have to choose the fabrics," sighs designer Anamika Khanna.

As she approves of each fabric, three men drop to their knees, cut out tiny bits of the material, staple them to the sketch, and whisk them away. The room piles up with colour, and the brilliance of the fabrics is blinding.

She works like a Machine
And so do the other nine or 10 people in the room: wheeling the rails around, buttoning and unbuttoning the jackets off models, matching her sketches to the toile and making corrections, discussing buttons and braids and beading.

It’s very late in the afternoon when every toile has been seen and okayed with bits of paper stapled on. Then racks and racks of fabrics are wheeled in and the sketches dropped one by one on the floor.

Shockingly bright tartans are dropped on the floor in piles, and she piles dulled silks on top of them, in colours so unlikely that one could wince. But as each pile of fabrics coalesces into its mix of pastel pink, shocking bright orange tartan, and dull green, one can’t help but admire Anamika’s skill.

What started off as a hobby
"I used to design for myself and experiement on friends", eventually became a full-flecged career for her. While still a collegian, she entered the Damania Fashion Awards with her Africa-inspired Shoowa line.

She won (along with Aki_Narula), and got the chance to showcase her clothes in Mumbai. And she’s never looked back since. "I only do Indian and Indo-Western outfits. I work towards a look which is essentially Indian with an international appeal," she says.

Just six years old in the profession
Having participated twice in the India_Fashion_Week and several awards (Kingfisher Hall of Fame and the Export Council award) later, this spunky Calcutta-based designer is already being hailed the queen of colour and exuberance.

Ask her and she’ll tell you that she’s probably never made anything grey in her life. "Every one of us, on the day we were born, sets out on a long-distance race. It is an endurance contest with the simplest of rules – go till you drop – and participation is mandatory."

Her styling
Is original, at times eccentric, her eye for colour just on the right side of jarring, her influences disparata. "The look is somewhere around late 60s-early 70’s Haight Ashbury, Yasgur’s Farm, hopping across to Kensington High Street into Biba, then on the Thea Porter, which of course were all India-inspired way back then.

Flower Power
Then it was called flower power, now it’s called Hippy Chic or maybe, Boho," she says. Bohemian style shows ample evidence of artistic and literary pursuits and disregard for convention. Pattern are often plentiful and mismatched, beads and beading are common, and European influences abound.

Mixing Many Styles
"The key is mixing many styles and periods, with an eye toward art and intellect," says Anamika. She calls her own brand Urban Odalisque. It’s not trashy in the slightest. "The Anamika Khanna girl has heaps of attitude."

The Look is Fresh
Fashion has always been a barometer, reflecting and, in some instances, pre-empting changes in society. The resurgence of the hippie look proves this more succinctly than most.

"It’s definitely the look of the summer," says Anamika. "What I like is that it’s trend without being trendy. It’s street-y, comfortable, pretty, and the look is fresh."

Hippie Fashion
The academic definition of hippie fashion is of a look which borrows the use of strong colours and flamboyant style from folk culture and mixes it with staples such as jeans and other tattered and embellished streetwear items.

A2, Sprint-Summer
Anamika Khanna will be unveiling her diffusion line, A2, Sprint-Summer line at stores across the country this season. And these ensembles will not just be available at such high-end fashion stores as Carma, Ogaan or Ffolio but also at superstores and lifestyle marts.

"This collection is all about quality and affordability. There is an emphasis on versatility and the clothes can be worn as separates or as part of an outfit," says the designer.

So, you could wear a cool, crinkled tunic with an embroidered border as a normal kurta or turn it into a sexy statement with a pair of shorts, a bustier and little else.

Stylish hippie chic is the keyword in many of the outfits in this new line with bright colours and an innovative use of denim setting the tone.

Bright Hues
"Indians have taken to bright hues. So they are here to stay for another season at least. hOwever, I have used a lot of pastels, ivories and hites keeping summer in mind," she says. Embroidery has been used to telling effect on Western cuts to create an Indo-Western fusion look.

Has cult success distanced her from the street?
"I keep my ear to the ground. I don’t need to be an artist. I need to be a voyeur, reflecting what I see around me."

Calcutta
2, Wood Street
Sangam 2C
Kolkata-700016
Phone-4752381
E-mail: anamika_khanna