Adgully Exclusive | I do not have rear view mirror in my journey: Designer Narendra Kumar

Narendra Kumar is one name that fashion industry looks for when it comes to colour, detailed designs and lots of fun. He epitomizes modern luxury, structured silhouette and sharp tailoring while integrating the richness of specially woven Indian fabrics and hand crafted detailing. In an exclusive chat with Adgully.com, the vivacious designer spoke about LFW, his collection and fashion.

Narendra Kumar holds an elaborate association with Lakme Fashion Week. "From when we set out to do Lakme Fashion Week up till date, Lakme has managed to get into a position of being able to discover new talent every season,", he said. Throwing up incredible talent which have reached national acclaim; "it has become a format and platform where talent is not only discovered, but given an opportunity to young people to showcase their talent and work and this is what we wanted from the very begining", he elaborated.

This he opined, does not get competiton, but encourages new talent in the industry. "Competiton makes one work much better. I believe that this country is young, and young people need a platform to showcase their work and if we and people at Lakme and LFW do not provide this format, who will do it", he said. I know, as a strugeler, who has been there done that, how difficult it is to get people even to see your clothes," he explained. He believes that its great to that today Lakme has given this oppurtunity to people to come ahead and display thier work to everyone.

At the Lakme Fashion Week Winter / Festive 2011, Narendra Kumar's collection was called "Fly me to the Moon", an impressive men's wear collection inspired by the Frank Sinatra chart topper. The presentation opened to a live singing trio led by Suresh Bhojwani, Ashwin Deo and T C D'Souza which made the audience sway to the foot tapping music of Sinatra. It was totally dedicated to confident men, reflecting the idea that men would want to go and shop for themselves and experience the joy of 'dressing up'. When asked about his choice of show stopper Kabir Bedi, Narendra, without any hitches said,

"Kabir Bedi exemplifies the adjectives of 'long, tall, youthfull, standing star' everything put together. I feel that he's been an star, who unfortunately in India, is not recognised as much as he should be. I believe that it brings the best of east and west."

On the marketing and sales front, Narendra, feels that marketing does play a vital role in one's career. "Participating in events like these does increase the degree of exposure that one can get. Also, today Lakme and Lakme Fashion Week is not only viewed in India, but all over the world, through all forms of media like the print, television and especially the web and internet. All this, builds a perfect blend that young, raw talent needs to start his / her career with", he said.

Singing off, the delighted designer, said that, "Lakme to me is fun, fun and fun, but from this year onwards, it also means business, business and business. My journey with LFW till date has been fun. The thing in my journey is that I do not have rear view mirror in my journey. What is gone is gone, what is coming is more important. And there's more fun to come." | By Ankita Tanna [ankita(at)adgully.com]