Trust Tarun Tahiliani to make you go ROFL and inspire you, both at the same time. His recent session at Roots on Chowringhee for Ficci FLO Kolkata, in collaboration with TATA Steel Kolkata Literary Fest, was all about 'Being Tarun Tahiliani'. Unapologetically himself. Excerpts from the chat.
Tarun and Calcutta…
We used to come here for our family holidays, hopping from one relative’s house to another and it was a time when we were young and simple and everything was so easy-breezy. In the 1990's when my father was the governor of Sikkim (Admiral RH Tahiliani), you had to spend a night in Calcutta for flights…. And now I’m coming here to do shows, meet my friends and I have my store here… it’s super engaging. Calcutta is a city I love coming to most, especially during winter, the city’s architecture, and driving past the Calcutta streets is an experience in itself.... There’s this specific thing I like about Calcutta: the women retain Indianness and the tradition is kept alive. What I find is a problem in Bombay and South Delhi is that people are either very Indian or very Western. And I keep saying, but who are you? You're not an actress. What's your style? As you get older, you've got to have your own style. You might like simple, you might like minimal, you might like modern. But you can't one day look like something and look like another the next day.
My sister (Tina Tahiliani Parikh) is playing semi-professional bridge and she comes here for bridge tournaments and she says: “All these crazy Bengalis I hang out with playing Bridge, they are brilliant'. It's another world and that's the beauty in India. There are so many different worlds you know.
Tarun, and his work ethics...
Well, he (Tarun's father, Admiral RH Tahiliani) was very disciplined. And I also went to a boarding school (The Doon School). You have to be disciplined there. And I just like, I like the dream. I mean, I've grown up with it. So I just like it, you know? And as you get older, when you've done it, you've seen it. We all went to parties. We did unimaginable things. It was so much fun. But, you know, that also passes. The thing I love the most is being in the studio... it’s beautiful and gives me joy when I work there. If I have to get up at 5am to miss traffic, I'll get up and miss it. I keep saying, I want to make a bedroom in the studio. So two nights a week, I can just stay there and keep working. And I have a piano, so I can practise piano. You can sketch. You can chat. You can do anything. What's the point of driving back to have dinner and going to sleep and come back? Stay there for two weeks and go for one day less. That's the new plan. But my wife (Sailaja Tahiliani) thinks it's ridiculous (laughs).
Tarun on Sailaja Tahiliani...
Well, ironically, when we moved to India, we were dead broke. You know, my salary was Rs 4,000. Three months into the marriage when our stuff came from America, customs took all the money and we had to loan some money from the cook! So we had Rs 20,000. And so Sal started to do some modelling. She's very tall. And though she was not interested in it, she did it and that’s how we paid our debts back. That’s how she met Rohit Khosla (designer) and the conversation started. You know, you have to trust life and providence and be receptive to what comes your way. There’s always some wonderful surprises around the corner.
Tarun on his mother Jaswanti Tahiliani...
Well, my mother was actually the first female engineer in Bombay and also a model. Sindhis were very liberal, they didn't have any restrictions. She was the oldest of seven daughters. She had five brothers and they all died. So her father depended on her, you know, as a son. And, she went on to study engineering. They had to build a toilet because no woman had ever studied there. Then my grandfather died very suddenly. So she was literally stuck saving that business. There's no question that you don't at least be educated. You don't have to work to make money. But you've got to have a purpose, you know. My mother has worked a lot with me in the beginning.
The evolution of saris and textiles...
It’s become a whole new world and you need to know much about textiles. Initially, we could see the tissue shredding when a brand would put heavy work on a tissue sari. They didn’t know you could not put such heavy embroidery on a tissue. It was a fantastic exciting time for experimentation. When I was abroad I found beautiful material to experiment with, which had no market in India and despite so many years since our Independence, whatever we made first, we held it up to the white man and asked them to have it first, which was just sad. So the patronage was lost and things went down but today, whether it's kantha or any other Indian textile, it's literally gone back, if you want it, it's there to be had with a price. And it's exquisite! The revival of crafts and textiles has given a boom to the Indian markets and the ones who looked down upon the country are dying to pay a visit. People aren’t sitting in villages not exposed, their children are seeing what’s happening, so there’s a fusion of ideas and identity. And a great Indian identity has been born.
Being relevant after more than two decades...
Well you know, I think as you go into design, you have to be true to it (the brand philosophy) if you want to survive in anything because that's your purpose. I've always been interested in how we can be Indian and be modern. I'm not interested in how one night you're dressed as Jodha, the next day you're trying to be something else. I find that very tacky. An Italian woman always looks Italian no matter what she does, the French have their thing! Now of course the world is becoming much more generic because of Instagram and travel. When you first went abroad, and the plane landed in Rome, you knew you arrived in Rome! So I think as Indians you know, we eat fresh rotis made while we sit at the table. There are so many amazing things that the world can't dream about that we take for granted! Just play yourself. Be one thing. Yes, I can speak English and be Indian. You can wear a gown, but don't transform yourself. And everyone thinks you're going to the Oscars. It's your wedding, you know. It's for people to celebrate you and you to celebrate your wedding.
And as things get more casual and everything goes, I find a lot of younger people struggling with what they should wear. Especially in Indian things. No one has that dilemma when it comes to Western things. Whether you wear Zara or Dior, it doesn't matter. And the one great thing about draping is that if three women walk into the same party wearing the same dress, sorry guys, you're going to look identical! But if the three of you wear a sari, one, two, three, you're going to look totally different. Your body's different, your drape's different, and your style will be different. And that's a great beauty. And we should never lose that.
I'm not interested in seeing someone make a beautiful lehnga. If it’s difficult to carry and then one hour later, you take it off and you come down in chappals, then what's the point? Confidence is not what you show. It's how you feel. It's how you live. It's what you do! So, I think the dust will settle.
When I first started going to Ahmedabad to chase Asha Sarabhai, who's the most low-key designer and doesn't want anybody to know her... Asha was doing the line of clothing with Issey Miyake and just khadi pintucks with the salwar and I said: ‘I see these clothes but they're not available. Who makes them?'.… I found out and went to see her.... They're so traditional and yet so modern... there was no affectation. It was beautiful, it was natural, it was Indian and it was modern!
Let's find a new way and I think that is what India modern means and it could be a million different things to different people there's no one right thing!
A SWOT analysis of Indian fashion...
I think when Ensemble (multi-designer outlet) opened, it kind of was like an electric shock... we could make a loss for more than two years and not worry about it and just follow our dream in fashion and just go for the quality we wanted.
There’s a time when someone’s just at the right place at the right time and it becomes a catalyst, that moment and, I think we were just lucky to be on the crest of that wave. Not that it did well for years but that idea went viral! Soon there was Kavita Bhartia at Ogaan and someone had something. The chikankari centres outside Lucknow would have Aishwarya Rai in a chikan outfit.
Then... multiple things happened — the government opened NIFTs (National Institute of Fashion Technology), and there are some 12 or 14 NIFTs now, even though I don’t think they all are adequately staffed but, anyway, they still impart knowledge and a lot of wonderful designers have come out of there. Technology came into fashion, fashion meets went global, the whole world was interested and even the BBC would cover it! I mean all this was great! We Indians are too smart. We will learn and will know what’s best for you, what’s your budget....
Style icons from the Hindi film industry...
Number one would be Rekha. She’s fantastic and she owns it! I think Simi Garewal has a great sense of style and I think all the older actresses have their own sense of style. However, the younger ones will go Western on a Monday and then Indian on the next day. Even though they look great in many things, they’re unaware of their own styles. And millions of young girls will follow it and find it okay. I just find the whole thing outrageous!
Leadership rules....
There are people who have been with me for 14 years and I want them to feel acknowledged and really grow. I’m never insecure about sharing things. I’m always like two years ahead in my head about what I’m going to do and sometimes I wake up at 4am and say I wish it was 6am, so I could get up and go to work, but I can’t go back to sleep! My mind is racing. Look, after a point you can understand the business and you know if you really want to grow, you’ve got to carry people with you and you’ve got to put your own ego aside and know that. Always remember the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, so whether it’s your worker or whether it’s just a person doing your job or not, if you make people feel good and do it genuinely... I mean we’ve got to be the leaders.... Our working conditions are insanely fantastic! What Maria Grazia Chiuri (of Dior) did... to acknowledge the Chanakya School of embroidery, is amazing.... There’s dignity and proper lighting and no one’s going to become blind from doing it.
Tarun’s time-management tips...
I just love everything I’m doing. So I always try to make time, I socialise less, I stay home, people come for dinner, it’s one person at a time. I mean, I’ve been at parties where people are texting people from across the room. If you have one person for dinner, even if you eat in the kitchen, you usually don’t text each other. You have a real conversation. So you choose, and that’s one of the things of being older and wiser, you know what works for you, that’s all.