Tarun welcomes summer in style

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Tarun Tahiliani’s impeccable silhouettes are a seamless blend of contemporary styles and deeply rooted aesthetic sensibilities, with an almost romantic East-meets-West twist. “I love romanticising India. My clothes are designed as contemporary silhouettes, which are culturally rooted and have traditional embroidery as the detailing,” explains Tarun.
Tahiliani’s design philosophy emerged from his younger days in Mumbai. “I grew up in Mumbai in a post-colonial, socialist India, where the elite clung to Jesuit schools and piano lessons and the craft of India was shrivelling from a lack of design innovation and proper patronage. Slowly, a new philosophy began to develop out of this bleak environment: one that was awakened to India’s truly great heritage and one that understood that contemporary design could give India’s rich traditions a new voice and, thus, a new resonance,” says Tarun, who loves history and art and likes to paint in free time.
The designer’s SS-13 collection redefines the trend of colour blocking. Easy separates that include lungi skirts and dhoti pants make a presence, embellished with a splash of appliqué and chikankari. The colour palate swings between shades of ivory, beige and grey alternated with peppy hues like tangerine, azure blue, peach and mango sorbets. “The leitmotif is blocking whether using colour, fabrics, textures, techniques or motifs,” says Tarun.
Asked about the trends for the future, Tahiliani says, “When I watched Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna a few years back, I noticed that the same characters were either dressed totally Western or totally Indian — but they were NRIs. Indians are on the cusp of a new way, which is a wonderful fusion of the two worlds. And this, for me, is the next big thing. It is where a true confluence in ideas results in a contemporary Indian style that is not ‘ethnic’ or ‘Western’ but has a global identity,” he says.