Interview

NAUSHAD ALI

Studio Liam Aurelec, Auroville 605 101 Tamil nadu

NIFT Chennai design graduate, this man simply loves Indian Traditional Designs. Creating designs that interweave modern cuts with heritage fabrics.

NAUSHAD ALI

1.How was your experience while working in the fashion retail industry?

Which one do you like better, your own label or working under someone in the industry?

The experience of working in the industry was a challenging one. The place I had worked was a very different and a difficult place as well.

The basic funda that is, if you work under someone then you have to follow their strict guidelines and there are time limits too! On the other hand, when you work with other people working under you, you have to set up guidelines which everybody can follow so the work is never interrupted.

2.What was going in your mind while setting up the Pop-up store in Pudducherry?

Pudducherry, close to me. I can relate it personally, be it with charm or the quality of life. People from other states in the country dont like to stay in the Southern parts. But as people say for Bombay also, one who has lived in Bombay will like it and others will not, same goes for Chennai too. Pudducherry, is completely different from the metropolitan cities like Bombay and Delhi. Setting up stores in an already established city is easier than setting it ina city yet to be established on a large scale.

3.A brief about your label “Indigo Love”. Why INDIGO?.

‘Indigo love’ is not a label, it is an ongoing collection. Yes, I am biased towards the color Indigo. I have also learnt to work with both neutral and dark shades of fabrics. But with indigo there are endless possibilites to work with.

Every season, indigo can be used in 100s of other forms and you see a new indigo range!

NAUSHAD ALI 5.How do you encourage your artisans?

I cannot encourage an artisan who has been working in the field for like 3 generations. In front of them, I am a newcomer. Moreover reviving a craft is not possible, any designer cannot replace it. I can just support my artisans by buying the fabricfrom them and paying them appropriately. I can convince the customers and clients to go with the certain collection and hence indireclty helping the artisans.

6.Summer 14 collection was a huge one for you. IKAT, DHAKAI JAMDANI and Men’s shirts from the saris of indian women. How positive do you take this step in your career? Brief about the Men’s collection.

I surely would want to step up with every show I have lined up in my career.

There are a lot of designers who work with the fabrics originated in different states of the country. The fabric of Madurai and Chennai would be so different from that of the fabric in Kolkata. We, as designers dont focus on one fabric.

We need every fabric which we can afford/arrange. Now there cannot be a new fabric emerging every now and then. Its just how we present it. A designer can even show indigo in the purest form and another designer can pull out some tie-dye process on the indigo and then show it.

We were working on a women’s collection simultaneously, so with the left out fabric of the women’s collection we made one shirt! We made that and I was wearing it the other day. It was such a comfortable fabric, so then we decided why not make men’s clothing with the same fabric. Plus there were checks all over the fabric. And checks especially for men’s always goes.

7.Lasty, why the name STUDIO LIAM. 4.Where is your workspace?

Workspace is in AuroVille. An experimental township in Viluppuram district in the state of Tamil Nadu near Puducherry.

Liam is my 4years old son’s name. This summarises I think!