Suket Dhir and his vision of traditional India

During this men’s fashion week, we interacted with the International Woolmark Prize Laureate 2016, Suket Dhir. He told us about his career as a fashion designer and the evolution of his eponymous brand specialized in men’s ready-to-wear.

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KODD MAGAZINE: Can you tell us about you and SUKETDHiR ?

SUKET DHIR: I live in New Dehli. I’ve tried many things before realizing that I was made for the design. Finding my way took me 6 or 7 years but I integrated a design school in 2002 and I graduated in 2005. I began to work in 2005 with a jeans brand, I stayed there three years. I had a break and I launched my brand in the end of October, 2010. It’s been 6 years today. We were also lucky to win the prize Woolmark International on 2016. We propose hand-made menswear, using many traditional Indian techniques which we modernize to give a new global esthetic. Our approach of the fashion comes from various perspectives. Instead of wondering how clothes are going to look on the person who wears them, we rather ask ourselves the question ” What look is the person going to give to the clothes ? ” Our clothes adapt themselves to the personality of the one who wears them.

KM: Why did you choose to start at White Man and Woman ?

SD: I am very instinctive, we have also certain limitations of investment, we are a small brand. It was for us the first exhibition, and it was very successful. We received a lot of attention from the media during year. As a young brand, we cannot afford a show in Paris or in London, but if god wants it, in the future, we would love being able to make it happen.

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KM: Can you tell us about your success of International Wooolmark prize 2016 ?
SD: Absolutely. This victory means a lot for me, she gave me respect and confidence for my work which I did not necessarily had before. I try to set higher goals from now on. I am no more afraid of thinking big, everything seems possible to me from now on if I put my heart and my passion in it. It also launched us into the international market, while I thought that the rest of the world was not ready for this kind of esthetics. This prize gave us a real exposure to the world.

KM: Why did you choose the fashion industry?

SD: As I said it earlier, I tried diverse things. I did one year of business, but I was really bad so I did not pursue. Then I began a bachelor in applications for computers. I did the first year, but the second included many coding and I was very bad for that, so I left this program. I then returned into a web design cursus, which pleased me at first because I could express my creativity, but as soon as we started studying e-commerce, I became totally lost. This is when my father, who supported me at the time, asked me to find my own way to earn money. So I worked as a seller of telephone pieces for the United States. I worked there during almost one year. During all this time, I still did not know what I wanted to do but I knew what I didn’t want to do. One day, I was discussing with a friend, and we realized that I was good for a lot of things related to the art, that I had a particular interest for clothes for a long time, liked helping my friends to get dressed, advise them when they bought clothes. My father and my grandfather had also worked in the apparel environment. With all these things, I realized that I had a real interest for fashion so I applied for a fashion school, and that’s how everything linked.

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KM: Can you describe your universe and SUKETDHiR style ?

SD: I don’t know what we will become in the future but for the moment it is simple clothes, in which you feel good until you forget that you wear them. It is my vision of my clothes.

KM: What are your fashion influences ?

SD: I am inspired of my Indian inheritance a lot. It has a lot to do with my manufacturing and creation processes.

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KM: Have you got any future projects ?

SD: I want to concentrate on my products and designs, and I am open to international collaborations to create more products as bags or shoes by example. We have already collaborated with a brand called Nicobar. The collection is not available for the moment, but we collaborated with them and it is this kind of projects that I wish to see more in the future. We had a real development during the last 6 months.

KM: Do you have a last word for our readers ?

SD: My last advice would be : keep your eyes on all the good things that are happening in the world. It is really important to concentrate on what is good. I say it because it is what brought me where I am now.