I twas no flash in the pan when he bagged the prestigious ‘Inside White’ award in Milan some three years ago. At 26, he had walked away with the best collection prize set aside for first-time designers at a fashion exhibition called ‘White’, a side-show at the Milan Fashion Week. Varun Bahl had romped home to much applause from the fashion fraternity and had the spotlight firmly turned on him as the designer to watch. A couple of India fashion weeks later (he was part of the grand finale last year) Bahl has done it again. He’s back in the news and this time for launching a collection for Hollywood actress Olivia Hussey, best known for playing Juliet in Romeo and Juliet. Come June and ‘Olivia Hussey by Varun Bahl’ will be unveiled, coinciding with the release of Hussey’s film Mother Teresa of Calcutta, in which she plays the Mother.

Bahl is also flushed with the success of the Varun Bahl label in Japan. His last year’s line for India Fashion Week may have proved to be a damp squib in India, but it was bought by a Japanese buyer who sold it successfully in her country. More recently, he has been on high-alert for his show at the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week.

But for now Los Angeles ? and Olivia Hussey ? beckon. “This assignment just landed on my plate,” he chuckles. And adds: “I think she short-listed me because she wanted to introduce this line in Japan ? a market that I know very well.''

For Hussey’s collection, Bahl has emphasised on Mother’s quintessential blue and white colours and the actress’ other very romantic and vulnerable Juliet persona. That Hussey is tying up with an Indian designer should come as no surprise. She professes to be in love with India ? so much so that she has even named her daughter India. This year Hussey has won the Mother Teresa Award that’s been instituted by the St Bernadette Institute of Sacred Art, which is awarded to people who make a mark in the fields of religion, social justice and the arts. Bahl explains, “She intends to spend a major part of her life devoted to charity and my collection for her will be a commercial line.” The proceeds of Bahl’s collection for her are also to go to charity.

Bahl confesses to being very nervous and apprehensive before his first meeting with Hussey in Los Angeles. “But she made me feel very comfortable and at home,” he recalls. After meeting her, all his inhibitions vanished and next they were busy strategising the business like two old friends.

Before Bahl set to work on the collection, he watched Mother Teresa of Calcutta several times. With Juliet in mind, he designed petticoat skirts that came with bell-shaped detachable sleeves. Though the colour palette was kept heavy on the blues and whites, other soft and romantic hues of ivory and beige were broken with vivid crimson and green. To get the collection ready, Bahl returned to India and completed designing it in 25 days flat.

Bahl enjoys selling his clothes to the European market and admits it’s because those markets value his creations better. He says ruefully, “My last year’s finale collection for India Fashion Week wasn’t well received in India, but ironically it did well internationally” With the collection being a hit in Japan, Bahl did a one-week promo in Tokyo last year.

The designer says that he works best under pressure, and that he has kept very busy designing his quizzically titled collection ‘Who am I?’ for Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week (WLIFW). An amused Bahl declares, “The collection is about multiple personality disorder and I am my own inspiration for the line.” The collection, he says, is a reflection of the multiple personality disorder that we all suffer from, but don’t admit to.

Bahl says that while he was a nervous wreck during the last two fashion weeks, this time he remained calm and composed. He says, “I’ve done a collection with an unusual concept that I truly love and don’t care how people view it. The clothes are unpredictable ? quite like me. They look as though two people have designed them.” The collection is all about ruffled tops, coats with pouf sleeves and skirts with ‘psychological’ pockets (these are protrusions that give the semblance of pockets but don’t function as pockets). So what’s the designer’s USP? “It’s my odd colour palette, which always starts with ivory and beige, and the texture that I give to my clothes,” he says.

Today, excited as he is about joining hands with Hussey, he says that he always knew that he would design clothes one day. When he finished his schooling from Delhi’s Modern School, he joined his father’s garment export business. He was all of 17 then. To sharpen his designing skills he enrolled for an evening course at NIFT. He also worked along with his two brothers in the business ? building on his skills.

At this time, he also struggled to strike a rapport with fashion giants like Giorgio Armani. “I literally went knocking on their doors, dragging a huge suitcase showing my design ideas,” he recalls. And then Milan happened. Bahl was declared the winner amongst the 25 designers participating in the Inside White exhibition.

To his surprise he found himself booking his first order minutes after the exhibition opened. By the end of the exhibition, on the third day, Bahl had booked orders from 48 of Italy’s top fashion stores as well as some from Spain. There has been no looking back since. He’s also come away from the experience being hooked to Italy. He enjoys everything about Italy ? its fashion, food, lifestyle and even the language. But he says sheepishly, “I only try speaking Italian with the taxi drivers in Italy.”

While Bahl may like to take each day as it comes, he has a plan up his designer sleeve. So in love is he with Italy that his ultimate dream is to settle down in a village near Milan. “Two years from now, I will be living in Italy and I see no reason why I won’t.” But meanwhile it’s back to the drawing board to create yet more clothes.

Photograph by Rupinder Sharma