The latest blue-eyed boy of British fashion is an Indian designer who?s never sold a single article of clothing in India. Ashish Gupta has been declared one of the top new generation designers by the powers that be at the London Fashion Week. The scribes have tried to pin down an identity for him, as a British Asian. The young designer laughs it off, born as he was in Delhi and raised in the city.

?I moved to London when I was 21. Since then I?ve been dividing my time between Delhi and London ? three weeks in each place,? he says. Why does he live this peripatetic lifestyle? He designs in London, has workshops in India where he gets intricate hand-embroidery done. But the key thing to remember is that his label ?Ashish? sells in London, France, Milan, Toronto, Australia, Greece, Russia, the Middle-East, Tokyo and Hong Kong.

His signature style is marked by clothes that are colourful and choc-a-bloc with handwork. If London is the centre of fashion from where Gupta culls his international look, there?s the Indian context in terms of skill and craft. ?My whole aesthetic sense is based on the tradition of handwork in India. There?s everything from zardosi to beadwork, sequins and knitting. But it?s all been changed into something that?s contemporary,? says Gupta.

For instance, his Spring-Summer 2005 collection that showed at the London Fashion Week, has been described as ?Pop African with a sprinkling of Bollywood glitter? mixed with a bit of ?vintage Americana?. ?It?s been called Pop African because the clothes had kitenge (special wax cotton prints designed in Holland, printed in India and exported to Africa) which is mostly worn by Black women,? he explains.

Kitenge is a whole genre of colourful fabric that picks up everyday things like currency notes, mobile phones, scissors and prints pictures of them on shocking pink and orange fabrics. ?I traced the outlines of scissor prints with tiny sequins. So there was a bit of Bollywood, a bit of Africa, a bit of America and a bit of British quirkiness. That?s what the world is now,? adds the designer whose collection of cheery greens and oranges filled with snazzy scissor embroidery and coupled with trench coats, printed tights and shiny kilts attracted a shower of accolades.

Fall 2001 saw his debut collection at the Mecca of the fashionable, Browns in London. It was a piece of luck, says the 32-year-old. ?A friend of mine had walked into the store wearing one of my creations. The buyer happened to be there. He asked her where she?d bought it and got in touch with me. I took a big suitcase of clothes which they lapped up. They?ve stuck with me since,? smiles Gupta. This was the big break that came just when he was worried that he might have to take up a job on the side to make ends meet in England.

To break into an industry that is predominantly Westernised is tough. Ask Gupta who had to take care to maintain a low profile and keep the media at bay. ?I didn?t court attention because I didn?t want to be labelled by the media. It?s easy for them to do that, but it spoils your chances in a trice,? he reckons.

In 2002 at the Paris Fashion Week, he caught the eye of Japanese buyers. ?I wasn?t showing there, but somebody was wearing my creation. The next thing I knew there were Japanese magazines carrying photographs of it. I got calls from them to show my collection at their stores,? says Gupta. It was a snowball effect with recognition from New York in the form of a sponsorship by an organisation called Genart to show his collection there.

The designer had an unofficial showing at the London Fashion Week only in February 2004. Cut to September 2004 when he did an on-schedule catwalk during the Fashion Week in London. Not only did he bag an order from Selfridges, he also won the New Generation award that sponsored his second on-schedule showing at the London Fashion Week?s Spring-Summer 2005 show.

Over the years he?s built a celeb clientele list that boasts the likes of Jerry Hall, Keira Knightley, Kelly Osborne, Elizabeth Jagger, Mena Suvari, Sophie Ellis Baxter, Sharon Stone and Bryan Adams. One of his dresses was even worn by Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex and the City.

?It was a big kick seeing Jerry Hall walking into my office. She?s always been my fashion icon. But even when I see a strange person walking on the street wearing my clothes, it?s an amazing feeling. Especially since London is a big city and it?s happened to me a few times. I suddenly see this person in something I?ve made. The fact that she?s shopped for it is a high,? he grins.

If he needed any fine-tuning, it was provided by British fashionista Zandra Rhodes, with whom Gupta worked for some time. ?She is very inspiring and colourful what with her shocking pink hair,? he jests. On a more earnest note, he adds, ?She never stops. She has a lot of drive.?

Having done his schooling from St Columbas in Delhi, Gupta wanted to pursue fashion as a profession. Besides initial opposition at home, things were made difficult by the fact that both National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) and National Institute of Design (NID) refused to accept him. ?I was irritated but didn?t want to let them stop me. I graduated from the College of Art on Tilak Marg. Still I couldn?t see myself working in an ad agency. I wanted to get into fashion,? he says.

Soon afterwards he moved to London, studied fashion design at Middlesex University and followed this up with a degree in fashion from the famed Central St Martins.

Then something happened that was a defining moment in his life. He was travelling in Paris when his portfolio was stolen. ?Someone picked it up thinking it was a laptop. Here I was in a strange city and didn?t even know the language. All my work was gone and I felt destroyed. I had to cancel all my interviews and return to India. But I had to make a fresh start. So I decided to do things the other way. Instead of building up a base in India and then going abroad, I built it abroad,? he smiles.

But this zesty designer is not content to rest on his laurels. ?I work as much as I can. Right now I?m sending my orders for Autumn-Winter 2005 which will hit the stores from August,? he says. He?s also working on his Spring-Summer 2006 collection. ?There?s a beautiful Indian handwoven fabric that I?m using. I?m mixing it with other fabrics for a sporty and Egyptian feel. It?s been inspired by memories evoked by a rainy day,? he says.

Ask him about designers back home in India and he smiles, ?I don?t party much. So I haven?t actually met any of them. This question though has landed me in trouble. I had a fight with a reporter because all she did in her copy was look down at the other designers. When I asked her not to publish it she told me I was a nobody. It was my first interview and it stung even though I?ve been covered by magazines like Vogue, The Face and Nylon.?

Photograph by Jagan Negi

Location courtesy: The Park Royal, Delhi