Ponnu Elizabeth Mathew
Every designer has a way of working backstage, and seeing Sonam Dubal justifies that he is as much an organised man as an ingenious designer. There is a palpable glow in his eyes as he hands out the bakhu skirts and oriental wraps to the models and jots down the last minute details for his private fashion show at Amethyst.
But little will one comprehend that the fashion designer who has sizzled the ramps of Lakme India Fashion Week and many other prestigious places is a graduate in Political Science and once aspired to be a language translator. “Yes. I love travelling. And also languages. When I was in college, I dreamt of being a language translator,” he narrates. For the man with a definitive touch of an artist, when NIFT first opened its doors to designing, he was naturally drawn to it. “I used to sketch a lot. And fashion designing seemed like a natural choice,” he says.
When he started his design label, Sanskar, in 1999, the high-end streets of New Delhi saw the genesis of the reinterpretation of oriental styles, with a simple wearable collection on old brocade. “Wearability is the key,” reiterates the designer. His perceptible inclination towards Tibetan, Mongolian and Eastern silhouettes is only an attempt to retrace his roots, Sonam confesses. “I’m half Tibetan, half Mumbaikar,” he discloses. Thus birthed the Tibetan cuts, Japanese layering and Indian embroidery in his collection. “What I’m trying to do is make clothes that are from Asia and also a part of Asia,” he says. His recent Trailing of River Goddesses Fall-Winter collection perhaps echoes this with full optimism. Inspired by Mekong, Nile and Brahmaputra, the clothes reflect sensibilities of universal brotherhood.
If his repertoire of tasteful designs are well appreciated world over, then it more than ever reflects what it means to be a responsible citizen. After all, political science must have taught him a lot.
