If you cared to delve beyond the facade of flamboyance, you would get a peek into a calm soul, as calm as the waters of the Dal Lake on a still, cloudless day. The Kashmir of his childhood had shaped his soul, a Kashmir that was untouched by turmoil. Rohit Bal, Gudda to the fashion world, had grown up in a Kashmir that was “paradise”, and he had carried that paradise within him all his life, often giving us glimpses of it through his work.
“I was born and brought up in Kashmir and I was born and brought up in a Kashmir that was paradise. It was a place which was touched by God I think. Everything there was naturally spectacular, beautiful — from the people to the climate, the weather, the flowers, the fauna… I mean everything there. I could actually imagine God living there. So obviously for someone brought up in Kashmir in the mid-60s, it was like a fantasy land. The meadows of Gulmarg to the streams of Pahalgam, the mountains and the lakes..... There is a very famous quotation in Persian that says ‘If there is heaven on earth, it is this, it is this, it is this’,” Gudda had once told me in an interview, when I asked him about the three loves of his life.
As he went on to speak about his growing-up days in Kashmir, I listened mesmerised. As he described walking through the saffron fields on a moonless night as a child, or floating on the Dal Lake on shikaras, his words were like poetry to my ears, making it one of the most memorable interviews in my career as a fashion journalist. “My love affair with Kashmir was very natural, and I was a sensitive child, so I reacted to that beauty all around. I grew up in a heavenly home where you open the window and you fell into the lap of beauty, a completely idyllic existence,” he went down memory lane.
His second love, he told me, was the lotus, also stemming from his childhood. “While growing up in Kashmir, floating through the lakes, the famous Dal Lake, on shikaras or dungas, you are actually floating through these lotus fields, these floating flower gardens. What reaches out to you are the magnificence and at the same time the humility of the lotus… the fact that it manages to grow in that dirty water.… Also, while growing up in Kashmir, one is exposed to a lot of the Mughal architecture where the lotus is used extensively, whether it is the Chashme Shahi garden or the Shalimar Bagh, all the Mughal gardens there. Obviously, as a growing child, I became more and more obsessed with flowers, I was obsessed with magnolia... we had magnolia trees in our house. Then walking through fields of saffron in Kashmir… when you are walking through a saffron field on a moonless night you feel like you’re in the middle of the ocean, with a breeze blowing amidst the purple and lilac flowers…. So these sights and memories are so embedded in my mind that no matter where I am, I am constantly going back to those,” he continued. I have been constantly going back to those words too, whenever I would think of Gudda later.
His third love, he had told me, was ivory mulmul. He was always the ivory prince for me! No one did ivory like Rohit Bal! And no one did mulmul like him either. “I remember the first collection that I made, in 1989, it was entirely made of mulmul, in its raw state, unprocessed mulmul. The mulmul that I use even today is unprocessed. So mulmul became a passion for me, the colour ivory became a passion for me…. So this is a long-time love affair, which is still going on.
It hasn’t stopped,” he had said.
A Rohit Bal show was never complete without dreamy flowing ivory silhouettes in crinkly mulmul, touched by his impeccable craftsmanship, and that held true to his very last show. Once he started making them early in his career, he never stopped, making them his signature. “I still start or end every show of mine with at least 20 pieces in ivory mulmul. There again, the humility and the basic quality of mulmul is what I love, it’s the most basic of all fabrics,” he had said.
Another one of Gudda’s most memorable collections from the mid-90s would be the Pietra Dura in 1995-96, inspired by the inlay work of the Taj Mahal. This was also a collection that was close to his heart, and he incorporated the Pietra Dura technique in many of his later collections too.
Among many outstanding collections that he had done over the years, another one that stands out, and was very special to him too, was a collection inspired by a design from Turkey, in all blue. He had fallen in love with the design while on a vacation in Turkey.
And, of course, his love story with blacks and bold red blooms is stuff of legends! He splashed them in many a show in his later years. And he splashed them in full glory at his swan song — the grand finale of the Lakme Fashion Week in partnership with FDCI, on October 13 at The Imperial New Delhi. Rising like a phoenix from the ashes, he gave the world a last glimpse of his brilliance through his collection Kaaynaat, before leaving the world for good, days later (on November 1)! It was like a script written by destiny.
Gudda’s fun and flamboyant personality would always make its way to his ramp shows, making them a larger-than-life affair often. He breathed life into his shows with his choice of muse, music and more, invariably taking to the ramp to do a little jig himself, turning a show into a party like only he could. It was almost heartbreaking to see him do that little jig at the end of his finale show one last time, at the LFW on October 13. The bittersweet moment brought a tear to the eye as well as a smile on the lips of everyone present at The Imperial ballroom that night.
Among many memorable shows throughout his career, I particularly remember a show as part of the India Couture Week in 2017, at the Bikaner House in Delhi, where he had put his friends from the fraternity on the ramp as models — from FDCI president Sunil Sethi to fellow designer Raghavendra Rathore to good friend Arjun Rampal, who was his all-time favourite muse. The show was a party on the ramp, pulsating with fun and energy while the exquisite craftsmanship told the story of Rohit Bal’s genius. As I think back, there are many a show over the past 25 years that come to mind — the one at the first edition of the Kolkata Fashion Week; the one show where he had used the haunting Kill Bill whistle tune as his music track throughout the show with amazing effect…. Gudda was a showman like none other and each show was like a film that leaves a lasting impression even years after you’ve watched it.
Rohit Bal’s creative brilliance as a designer has often reminded us of Rohit Khosla, who is widely regarded as the most talented designer India has ever had, and is credited to be the pioneer of modern Indian fashion. For Gudda, Khosla was his mentor. “The one person who is responsible for anything and everything that I am today is definitely a person called Rohit Khosla. He unfortunately is not with us anymore. He was the one person who literally taught me to be a designer. I still remember the day when he came to my house, picked me up, took me to Chandni Chowk and said now buy fabrics and make clothes. No other person in the world has helped me as much in making me what I am today,” Gudda had once told me. He also admired the design sensibilities and “courage” of Jean Paul Gaultier, Yohji Yamamoto and Comme de Garcon.
Gudda never forgot a favour, and loyalty and friendship are qualities he valued above all else. He would himself go out of the way to help his friends. One instance that comes to my mind is the day his good friend, designer Anamika Khanna’s finale of the Lakme Fashion Week Summer Resort 2015, scheduled to be held at the Bhau Daji Lad Museum in Mumbai, was stopped by vandals hours before the show. With the vandals having torn down the sets prepared for the show at the museum, the show had to be moved to the foyer of St. Regis Mumbai at the last minute. All of us standing witness to the action watched in wonder as Gudda stepped up and stepped in to help an understandably disturbed Anamika. He took matters in his hands, and with support from other designer friends, helped Anamika mount the show. And what a show it was! As Kareena Kapoor Khan walked down the grand staircase of St. Regis Mumbai as Anamika’s showstopper, there was not a pair of dry eyes in the audience. That was Rohit Bal, the friend.
Over the years, there are many such incidents, conversations, and moments with Gudda that have remained memorable, remained special, close to the heart.
I remember being seated across the table from him at the coffee shop of Taj Bengal, exactly a year after he had suffered his first heart attack in 2010. During the course of my interview, I asked him what luxury meant to him. “Health… there is no bigger luxury than being blessed with good health. If you have it, look after it well,” were the wise words from the chilled-out man who had always believed in living life king-size, and whose penchant for parties was legendary.
I repeated the question to him years later, and this time, perhaps, he knew he was running out of time. “Number one is time… the most important. Time translates into all other forms of luxury…” he had said.
If only the world had the luxury of some more time with Gudda!
