Rosy Ahluwalia ‘I was created to create’

By: Surveshwar Sarvesh

Designer Rosy Ahluwalia is a very well known name in the Indian fashion industry today. She is a veteran Bollywood designer and her classic work bedazzles everyone in the industry. Her collections combine Indian sensibilities and crafts with western silhouettes, and has been show stealers in India as well as on international platforms.

Rosy loves and promotes Khadi by redefining luxury through exquisite design work with Khadi, and in fact, she is the founder of Dikha khadi world, a hot favourite label when it comes to styling. She has worked extensively with the Indian cinema and has been instrumental in redefining and contemporizing costumes in Indian Cinema and has won many prestigious awards till date.

An official designer for many projects, Rosy Ahluwalia’s areas of expertise is Bollywood, design, styling, diffusion, bridal and couture. She has been part of various international fashion shows in New York, Houston, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Dubai, Malaysia , Singapore etc. The biggest moment of her career is the moment when she showed her collection in Cannes Fashion Show. At the 70th Cannes Film Festival, she presented her collection inspired by the flower ‘Lotus’ at the Tiffany Red Carpet collection on 23rd May, 2017.

 

She has designed clothes for Madhur Bhandarkar movie Calendar Girls and currently done the designing for the movie One Night Stand with Sunny Leone, Colgate advertisement and styling for Bollywood celebrities like, Gauhar Khan, Urvashi Rautela, Sophie Choudhary, Lopamudra Raut, Evlyn Sharma, Manara Chopra, Manjot Singh, Mohit Madaan, Arbaaz Khan, Amisha Patel, Shibani Kashyap, Mannara Chopra and many more…

She is a part of Savvy magazine, a leading Female Magazine of India. She also made her debut on TV screens via TV ads of Colgate with singer Shibani Kashyap. Currently, as per media reports, she is working as a costume designer for a movie named ‘Lights! Camera! Murder!’ – directed by Kapil Sharma.

FashionGaze wanted to know more about Rosy’s life, goals, and achievements.

• What have been the challenges that you have faced in your journey – like a client disliking your creations and rejecting them, and how do you face them?

Yes, there have been instances. You see, everybody faces this problem, whether he is a designer, or a photographer, or for that matter from any other field. You never know if a client will accept your work or not. This is something very very common. I have seen a lot of people losing their patience. This is not professional. I, personally have learned to be patient. If a client is unhappy, I have made a thumb rule in my business in my company – I’m going to ask the client about their problems, and try to understand their problems. Most of the times, I would say 80% times people are very good and have genuine reasons. We are wrong, and they are right and we have made mistakes. We learn from that. We remain patient and credit our clients, and always we do not show attitude. We can go wrong at time as we are still learning. ‘I have learned. I’m still learning. I’ll still learn.’

The other thing is your attitude. Attitude plays a big role in your life. Lot of people throw lot of attitude. This leads to something else. I’m very confident that a positive, polite and a good attitude with anyone will take you a long way ahead and you will find everything is possible with a good attitude and good patience.

• Tell us more about your journey in Delhi so far in the Fashion Industry.

Ohh!, you have made me delve into the depths of my personal journey by asking this.

 

Well, after my marriage, I started from the scratch scratch again. I got married, and came to Delhi, In Delhi, I had no one. The only person I knew was my sister – who was a homemaker and had no connects with the fashion industry. It was a very difficult phase of my life to start again. But, I was blessed to have good family, good husband who every time supported me. But I had no clues about where to go, whom to approach and to show my collection.

 

Luckily, one fine morning, while going through Delhi Times, I saw a lot of big fantastic names like Greenways, Ushnath, Murchan. Those are, you know stalwarts in the fashion industry for many years. So I contacted them on landline (no cell phones in those days), took an appointment, and went there with 7-8 pieces of my collections, and I showed them.

 

It was like a universe call for me. You can also say it was a big blessing of the god’s, specially Ma Kali’s blessing. These heritage stores took my outfits on consignment basis. With Ma Kali’s grace, all of my collections got sold from the stores, and I got a call from them after three days. Yes, I got a break from these stores, and now they wanted more stuff from my collections on an outright purchase basis. That’s where my journey started. It’s history now.

 

Actually, we all have a history. We all have struggles. We all have up downs. But one thing I learned, and that is to never give up. Then I got connected with Mr. Bindal. He gave me a big break. He gave me a counter. Maybe I did wonders over there. I I created a different touch of suits, which I have given a touch of Kolkata, since I hail from Kolkata. We have a different taste – Delhi people are loud, but we from Kolkata are more sober. I did wonder there, and then again I conceived. I had to, you know; leave Bindal because I couldn’t continue.

• What do you think is the biggest challenge for the youth coming into the Fashion Industry after graduating from NIFT, Pearl Academy and others?

Yes, yes. Absolutely right, I totally agree with you. This is a very important factor for newcomers in the industry. We see lots of young talented designers who have lots of creative work come in the industry every day. They also have a great exposure from the social media, and are immensely talented. But, even with that kind of ability they don’t get a break. We see this happening in almost every industry – its just not in my industry. In every industry there are a lot of good people with good energy, good creative ideas, but they do not get a good break. I would like to advice them to be Patient. You should focus on yourself, on your dreams and take a risk. Take a small risk, that’s very important. Without risk nothing is possible. Competition is everywhere, in every field, and the Indian fashion industry is no different.

 

There is a lot of talent in India, hence the biggest challenge to stay in the industry is to always give your best, I mean always. And strive to stand out in the crowd. There are youngsters who are makeup artists, designers, etc. You have to come out from your house, understand what you are good at and study and then using your skills approach the right people. Don’t give up. Keep doing hard work till you taste success. Nothing is impossible. I personally came from Kolkata with no contacts and see where I am today. Its all because of my hard work and god’s blessings.

 

WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE:

(295) Rosy Ahluwalia ‘I was created to create’ – YouTube