Pioneering Indian fashion designer dies aged 63

Rohit Bal, one of India’s most famous fashion designers, has died aged 63 after a long illness.

The Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI) announced his death in a post on Instagram, saying his work “redefined Indian fashion”.

One of India’s first designers, Bal popularized fashion design as a viable, glamorous profession in the 1990s, and many who came after him credit him for their success.

He had been forced to take an extended break due to ill health, but made an emotional comeback just weeks ago.

“We will always need a Rohit Bal to show what classic elegance is – and why it crosses the generation gap,” said an article in Indian Express newspaper after Bal, looking frail but happy, appeared with his models at the grand finale of India Fashion Week in October.

Bal’s designs won acclaim for his deep understanding of Indian textiles and meticulous attention to detail.

His innovative creations were worn by Hollywood stars and supermodels, and he became synonymous with blending India’s rich cultural heritage with a modern flair.

Bal was born in Srinagar in Indian-administered Kashmir in 1961 and graduated from Delhi’s St Stephens College with an honors degree in history. He then worked in his family’s export business for a few years, learning the ropes.

After completing his formal training in fashion design at the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) in Delhi, Bal embarked on a journey that would redefine Indian fashion.

He created his own brand and designer line in 1990 and later opened several stores in India, the Middle East and Europe.

On his website, Bal described himself as a designer who “combines the right mix of history, folklore, village crafts and dying art to create imaginative and innovative masterpieces for catwalks and fashion talks”.

In 1996, Time Magazine listed him as India’s ‘Master of fabric and fantasy’.

Bal’s designs reached far and wide, with Hollywood actress Uma Thurman and supermodels Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell and Pamela Anderson wearing his creations. In 2001, tennis star Anna Kournikova walked the ramp for her Paris show.

Best known for his use of lotus and peacock motifs, Bal used rich fabrics such as velvet and brocade – his designs were elaborate, inspired by Indian grandeur and royalty.

Apart from designing clothes in his own label, Bal lent his name to endorsing products from shoes to linen, had tie-ups with textile giants like the Aditya Birla Group and even ventured into designing jewelery and luxury watches.

He also opened a line for children, saying that he believed that “children are a big consumer class in urban India”.

Bal created costumes for the highly watched Indian game show Kaun Banega Crorepati (Who Wants to be a Millionaire?) and designed costumes for the cabin crew of British Airways.

He unveiled his first prêt line for online retailer Jabong in 2014.

“I want to separate Rohit Bal from the House of Bal – in products as well as style, in animals and breadth,” Bal told Shefalee Vasudev in Mint newspaper.

“Rohit Bal stores (there will be no prêt here) will be special. People only come to me for special things – they want clothes that are like handmade works of art. I have it in me to balance the right and left sides of my creative and business attitudes.”

When I met Bal years ago in his studio, his signature flamboyance was evident in dazzling neon-colored silks decorated with intricate embroidery; slim blouses and skirts together with taffeta skirts and net blouses, in light, warm and cool colours.

“Fabric is the seed of designing a garment, it is the lifeblood of fashion,” he told me.

His earliest memories of fabric were completely sensual, he said, recalling the downy feel of a jamawar shawl back home in Srinagar and the soft warmth of his mother’s shahtoosh sari.

His early years in Srinagar contributed to what he described as a “blissful childhood”. The idyllic life, he said, was disrupted by the violence in the region, forcing the family to move to Delhi.

Bal recalled that he embarked on a sartorial adventure at the age of 11, when he lured his father into a tailor shop in Delhi to make his own tassel-embellished jeans.

Bal also diversified into the restaurant business, designing the interiors of one of Delhi’s posh restaurants, Veda, whose opulent and extravagant interiors created a buzz in the Indian media.

He told me that it was also okay with him if foreign brands like Armani or Hilfiger came to take the high street in India.

“They can’t do what I can do with Indian designs,” Bal said.

His flamboyant lifestyle led the Indian media to call him the “bad boy of fashion”.

“People see me in photographs surrounded by beautiful models and think I’m a snobbish, high-maintenance designer who’s all about beauty and hedonism. When they meet me, they realize how false that perception is,” he told Vasudev .