The Sophisticate

It's hard not to like Sanchita Ajjampur — she's pretty and smart, affable, quick-witted and has nothing but polite words for her colleagues. Most importantly, in the five years since she's been showcasing her label — Sanchita — in India, she's barely earned a dull review: everyone loves her clothes and she sells from some of the most reputed fashion stores here.

Ajjampur is in an envied space today. She's earned herself a second sponsored show at the fashion weeks. Last season, Fiama Di Wills footed the bill for her show at the Wills India Fashion Week in Delhi. This season, it's Blender's Pride at Lakme Fashion Week in Mumbai. Green smoke around her colleagues? "I don't look at it that way," she says, lounging in all-black and bathroom slippers in her hotel room over a cuppa the morning of her show, adding, "I work very hard and I'm glad somebody thinks I can deliver."

Much of Ajjampur's easy-to-please disposition comes from her nomadic life. She was born in Mumbai and moved to Europe at three. She studied in Vienna and the UK, went to Paris' super snobby Chambre Syndicale de la haute Couture to learn to stitch and earned her Masters degree in Milan. Her clothes reflect her global l'air too: they are very European in flavour, many are Indian in their textures. She pulls out a fringed floor-sweeper in beige, with laser-cut crepe de Chine. There's a golden brocade cape dress lying on the bed, alongside two ultra-sexy bikinis. Another nude tiered column dress with sequins and beads harks back to the flapper generation of the '20s. "It's for the red carpet — what Mumbai likes," she says.

Ajjampur, 42, says she's lost in the city by the sea; she hasn't presented here since 2007. "I've learnt to mould my aesthetic. India teaches you that," she says with a laugh. She's made herself more "flashy", she adds, and begun to understand India's sizing doesn't always conform to the European model.

... contd.

ALSO READ

High Spirits

Island city residents may face power tariff hike for 3 years

Nostalgia Lane

Two Kabir Kala Manch members arrested after four-hour ‘wait’