In the world of fashion where air kissing and knock-offs are commonplace, Wendell Rodricks is recognised for his distinctive style. He has spent close to two decades in the industry, but his arrival among the champagne set was a circuitous one.

Although he nurtured the dream of being part of the textiles industry since boyhood, he had to work his way around till he arrived at his destination. As Wendell says, his family did not have Rs 5 lakh to throw away for a course in fashion design at one of the reputed colleges abroad.

So he did the next best thing and enrolled for a diploma in hotel management at the Institute of Hotel Management, Catering Technology and Applied Nutrition in Mumbai.

After acquiring his diploma, he worked at a few hotels in the Sultanate of Oman for a couple of years. This helped him pay for a course in fashion at the American College of the Applied Arts in Los Angeles. It was a two-year course, but he managed to wrap it up in nine months. With some money remaining, he enrolled for a specialised course in styling at the Paris American Academy, in Paris.

“The experiences at both colleges were very distinct. While the emphasis in America was on market forces, pricing and trade, the Parisians had a total disregard for anything commercial. The focus there was purely on creative outflow and craft,” says Rodricks.

As a student, Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake was his idol, and he respected the philosophies of Chanel, Dior and Balenciaga. Today, he admires Huseyin Chalayan, Rei Kawakubo and Helmut Lang.

The designer returned to India and set up base in Mumbai in 1988. For a little over two years, Rodricks worked for design houses such as Garden Vareli, Lakme and De Beers, before putting out his own label, simply called Wendell Rodricks, in 1990. He followed this up with a three-year stint in Glitterati and Ensemble, with colleagues who would later become stalwarts of the industry ? Tarun Tahiliani, Shahab Durazi and Ravi Bajaj. “We were full of ideas and had great fun coming up with new concepts every other day,” he reminisces.

And then, the Goa lad had enough of the dust and grime of a big city and decided to move back to his ancestral village in Colvale, Goa. The pundits of fashion pronounced that he was committing creative suicide. But for Rodricks, it was to become the start of his best artistic experiences.

“Way back in my early days in the hotel industry, I was exposed to the international clientele and the fine taste of the beautiful people. Watching them, I knew that I could attain whatever I wanted,” says he. “It is not where you are but what you become that is critical.”

Next on his agenda was to hone his individualistic style. And the tranquillity of Goa provided him the opportunity for that. “One has an open palette when one starts out, but eventually, you have to work very hard to have your own style. To begin with, the sense of isolation in Goa became conducive to creativity. People call it laid back, but I find it very energising,” he says.

Back in Colvale, his designs hit a balance between sensuousness and practicality. They were both functional as well as whimsical. Most of his creations uphold a resort spirit. His clothes are easy to wash, feel good and are realistically priced.

Over the years, the designer has paraded his collections on countless ramps. He had a show at the Festival of India in France at the chic Parisian suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt. The hallmark of Rodricks’ collection, La Goa, was marine-inspired pleating, in the colour palette of white, beige, blue, black, and red, orange and fuchsia.

“The most creative ideas come from Paris. For instance, the choreographers worked on a 40-minute Indian soundtrack to go with my collection,” he says. Fashion watchers were struck by an absence of anything that recalled the era of Indian royalty; and the most prized compliment came from French writer and philosopher Guy Sorman, who pronounced that his was a spiritually clean collection.

“Once you surpass the self-destructive quest for fame and money you can be more committed to your work,” says Rodricks. “Goa is no more a beach state of fish curry and rice eaters. I may not have the highest sales here, but I ensure that I put out a quality product.”

Rodricks is doing his bit to make Goa fashionable in more senses than one.