Fashion designer Paresh Lamba — The man behind the label

Long before Paresh Lamba became a brand name, and longer before he even set out to become a men’s wear designer, Paresh Lamba was a Delhi-boy who had a huge misconception about South India and her denizens. “During the 80s, all north Indians had just one impression of south India — that Madras equalled south India and all south Indians were Madrasis who ate only idlis and dosas and never wore pants.” The stereotype was so strong in his head that he was shocked when he made his first trip to the city.

Paresh’s cousin who was exploring Bangalore to set up a shoe store and a friend who was honeymooning at Ooty (an unheard of exotic destination those days), gave him enough reasons to check out Bangalore, still in its Pensioner’s Paradise mode. “I was just out of college and still deciding what I wanted to do with my life, so I stayed back in Bangalore for a month and worked at my cousin’s shoe store in Commercial street,” he recalls. That one month, he says, was a revelation. One that outstripped Lamba of all the misconceptions he’d had of people down the Vindhyas. “My first shock was realising that south Indians ate non-vegetarian food; unbelievably good non-vegetarian food, at that. My second shock was that they drank alcohol, and lots of it!” he candidly reveals.

Discovering the city led Lamba to new places and people. “People were moving into Bangalore from other places and it wasn’t an expensive city. I just loved the place and the weather,” he says.

Lamba also had an intuition: “Something about the place told me that it would take off.” And the clued-in businessman in him felt that Bangalore was better market for clothes. “I knew I didn’t want to design shoes for the rest of my life. I wanted to design clothes for men instead.” It also spurred matters that Bangalorean men those days were not exactly the best-dressed. “I was inspired (to turn a men’s designer) by the amazingly beautiful women of Bangalore who were almost always accompanied by astonishingly badly dressed men. The men simply had no idea of how to dress,” he states.

Lamba’s first venture started humbly, at home with one tailor. Not surprisingly, fashion designer friends, including some well-established names, thought he was making a big mistake setting up a store in a place where, “people didn’t know how to wear their footwear right.” For Lamba however, it was like looking at a glass half-full and he went on to work out of a shoe store. “I just viewed the entire situation as one that had huge potential. I would approach customers visiting the store and offer to stitch them clothes for free. I’d tell them that they could pay me if they were satisfied with my work,” he recalls of the struggling days. “I would sit with my master and design the clothes. I made mistakes, but slowly, over time I built it all and its been twenty years now...” he says. Of course, success meant Lamba could afford to buy the shoe store and convert it into the eponymous, landmark store in M G Road.

Counted amongst the top men’s fashion designers he may be, but Lamba is still very hands on and enjoys interacting with clients who walk into his store. Special attention to every customer might as well be words that can etched on his store’s walls. Another tenet he lives by is, “No one is too small in your life.” So, though he might be designing clothes for the rich and the famous, he assures that “every client is a celebrity to me and every client will get as much importance.”

Being a brand name sure isn’t easy. If anything, it ensures that  you don’t rest on your encomiums. Or as the designer who’d made Yeddyurappa look dapper during the Global Investors Meet, explains, “When I started off, people had zero percent expectations and so each time I delivered, they went wow! But today, when people walk into my store, they expect me to deliver a hundred and fifty percent. Today, even one small flaw in a suit designed by me would undo all the efforts gone into creating the brand.” And as he states, “For me it is about the brand than the money. If you create a brand, money will follow.”

For Lamba, being a designer is more about “getting into the mind of the client and giving him something he will feel most comfortable in”. A veteran in the men’s space, Lamba’s ultimate aim is not about raking in the millions. It is a succinct “making my client 100 percent happy with my clothes.” And for someone who has been in the fashion scene for twenty plus years, Lamba continues to stay charged up. “I have to have passion and focus for what I do. The moment the passion goes away, I will stop designing,” he declares.

Quick bytes

A Paresh Lamba man: A man wearing my label would be classy. I am not the kind of designer who would make men wear funny colours, atrociously futuristic designs or blingy clothes. I believe in designing clothes that people can relate to and make a man look like a man — a man who is chivalrous and brave, at that.

Why should men pay attention to what they wear: Nobody has time these days and people today judge you based on how you look. So, take care to package yourself well. The impression you create in the first five minutes can go a long way.

Words of advice to the men out there: Choose clothes according to your body type and skin tone. There’s no point aping anyone. I believe that everybody is born with a style quotient and all you need to do is rediscover it.

Designing for celebrities: It feels great to design for celebrities, right from captains of the industry to actors to politicians. While I consider every client of mine a celebrity, designing for the who’s who gives me a kick; it is more like an adrenaline shot for the work I do.

My favourite designers: I design formal lines, but I also enjoy wearing casual wear. My favourite brands include Ralph Lauren, True Religion, Giorgio Armani and I’ve just started wearing Paul and Shark.