Pioneering Indian fashion designer dies at 63

Rohit Bal, one of India’s most celebrated fashion designers, has passed away at the age of 63 after a long illness.

The Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI) announced his death in a post on Instagram, saying his work “redefined Indian fashion”.

One of India’s first designers, Bal popularized fashion design as a viable, glamorous profession in the 1990s and many who came after him thank him for their success.

He was forced to take an extended break due to ill health, but made an emotional comeback several weeks ago.

“We will always need a Rohit Bal to show what classic elegance is – and why it crosses the generation gap,” said an article in The Indian Express newspaper after Bal, looking frail but elated, appeared alongside his models at the grand finale of India Fashion Week in October.

Bal’s designs were praised for his deep knowledge of Indian textiles and meticulous attention to detail.

His innovative creations were worn by Hollywood stars and supermodels and he became synonymous with combining India’s rich cultural heritage with a contemporary flair.

Bal was born in Srinagar in Indian-administered Kashmir in 1961 and graduated from St. Stephens College in Delhi with a degree in history. He then worked for a few years in his family’s export company, where he learned the tricks of the trade.

After completing his formal training in fashion design at the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) in Delhi, Bal embarked on a journey that would redefine Indian fashion.

He set up his own label and designer line in 1990 and later opened several stores in India, the Middle East and Europe.

On his website, Bal described himself as a designer who combines “the right mix of history, folklore, village crafts and dying arts to create imaginative and innovative masterpieces for catwalks and fashion conversations”.

In 1996, Time Magazine called him India’s ‘Master of Fabric and Fantasy’.

Bal’s designs reached far and wide, with Hollywood actress Uma Thurman and supermodels Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell and Pamela Anderson wearing his creations. In 2001, tennis star Anna Kournikova walked the ramp before his show in Paris.

Bal is best known for his use of lotus and peacock motifs and used rich fabrics such as velvet and brocade. His designs were detailed, inspired by Indian grandeur and royalty.

Besides designing clothes for his own label, Bal lent his name to promote products from shoes to linens, had ties with textile giants like the Aditya Birla Group and even ventured into designing jewelry and luxury watches.

He also opened a line for children and said he believed that “children are an important consumer class in urban India”.

Bal made costumes for the widely watched Indian game show Kaun Banega Crorepati (Who Wants to be a Millionaire?) and designed costumes for British Airways cabin crew.

He unveiled his first fun line for online retailer Jabong in 2014.

“I want to separate Rohit Bal from the House of Bal – both in terms of products and style, in terms of duration and vastness,” Bal told Shefalee Vasudev in Mint newspaper.

“The Rohit Bal stores (there will be no prêtre here) will be special. People come to me only for special things – they want garments that look like handmade works of art. I have it in me to dress up the right and left sides of my body to balance creative and business tendencies.”

When I met Bal in his studio years ago, his characteristic flamboyance was expressed in dazzling neon-colored silks adorned with intricate embroidery; tight blouses and skirts together with taffeta skirts and net blouses, in bright, warm and cool colors.

“Fabric is the seed of designing a garment, it is the lifeblood of fashion,” he told me.

His earliest memories of fabric were entirely sensory, he said, recalling the fluffy feel of a jamawar shawl at home in Srinagar and the soft warmth of his mother’s shahtoosh saris.

His early years in Srinagar contributed to what he described as a “blissful childhood”. The idyllic life, he said, was disrupted by violence in the region, forcing the family to move to Delhi.

Bal recalled that he embarked on a tailoring journey at the age of 11 when he persuaded his father to go to a tailor shop in Delhi to make his own cowboy pants decorated with tassels.

Bal also diversified into the restaurant industry, designing the interiors of one of Delhi’s upmarket restaurants, Veda, whose opulent and extravagant interiors caused a stir in the Indian media.

He told me that he was also okay with foreign brands like Armani or Hilfiger taking over the high street space in India.

“They can’t do what I can do with Indian designs,” Bal said.

His flamboyant lifestyle prompted the Indian media to dub him “the bad boy of fashion”.

“People see me in photos surrounded by beautiful models and think I am a snobbish, high-maintenance designer who is about beauty and hedonism. When they meet me, they realize how fake that perception is,” he told Vasudev.