Style is about heterogeneity: Maithili Ahluwalia

Anti-fit became the new black, thanks to her. She made the chor bazaar chic. Mind you, she's not about exotic India but contemporary India. Half-Kutchi, half-Sikh and globally exposed, Maithili Ahluwalia, the owner of Bungalow 8 is not in the business of fashion but in the business of style. Curating Indie designers over the years and recontextualising antique - her atelier has been a credible platform for silenced voices - be it fashion or interiors.

I meet her in the moodily-lit quaint store in Colaba, where she floats in a breezy kaftan made out of an old sari, accessorised by her mom Jamini's statement gold neckpiece. If something doesn't look good on the customer trying out the outfit, she's quick to veto it.

Curating indie designers
She started it all in the February of 2002 but wasn't it a daunting task to start with unknown designers? "I'd be lying if I didn't say it was an uphill battle. I have put in a lot of hard work for 12 years. We were never really interested in established designers. We were more about giving a voice whether it was crafts person or a designer or a craft not getting its edge. I hope we've been a platform for previously silenced voices – be it interiors or fashion. I hope we have played a role in appreciating our own history."
Right now Bungalow 8 is in the process of opening a new outpost in Wankhede. "We haven't really decided if we are going to have this (Colaba) outpost or not. For us, Wankhede is shifting back home. We were there for two years, the stadium was being renovated and as a result of that, we came to Colaba. Our lease has expired here so we are currently negotiating with the landlord to see if we can extend the lease long enough to reinvest in this property. At Wankhede we are definitely opening in March 2015. We are looking at reopening it at Carmichael road where our story began – a small gift store."

Scouting young talent
"I think one looks at an individual voice and a voice of conviction, a designer who has something unusual to say like an unusual story. I don't look at it as a risk. We really look for things we believe in. I have never looked at things in obvious, commercial terms. I have always looked at the business driven by my core passion. By the grace of God, many of the decisions we have taken have been commercially successful."

Diverse aesthetics co-exist
Bungalow 8 has always been about a certain eclecticism – pairing old with new. Designer Nimish Shah's artisanal sweaters sit next to the modern day jumpsuits with Jamini Ahluwalia's gold acrylic jewellery. "The store has been about this dialogue about juxtaposing in many ways. I can't imagine doing retail or viewing the world in these singular terms. I have always looked at the world in a heterogeneous way."
She points to a panoply of mannequins at the store and comments, "We are having a dialogue with our own line of clothes designed by a French designer using Indian handlooms, having this rather humorous conversation with African tribal pieces and then we have this touch of North East Naga hats and Anavila's jewellery – this is Bunaglow 8."

She questions, "How boring the world would be if we were speaking in one language? It's a language of pluralism. Bungalow 8 is about a way of life, it's about a world view. It's about mixing the local and global."

Balancing art and commerce
"When you actually function from your core, you do what you love, when you do things with honesty, passion and conviction, things fall into place in many different ways. It needs to feel honest and effortless. When I saw Nimish's work, I was so confident that there'll be only one shop that'll retail this and it'll be us. It's become a magnet for individualistic things which people can't else where."

Key learning points
"Whenever I have compromised on my own conviction and thought commercially, it's been disastrous. We have got our USP. If we veer from our beliefs, we'll be less successful. In today's day and age, the only thing that differentiates us is 'us'. The day we started to look like others and have business informed by all this additional noise, I think we'll start to loose the only thing which has made us successful."

Role of Mathieu Gugumus Leguillon
"All our work is about a dialogue – we are bringing India into this and Mathieu is trying to bring a French precision. I use the word 'couture' in terms of cuts and craft. These words I find very loaded and are used very loosely. I feel people feel special in our clothes and not necessarily bogged down by words and definitions. It just feels effortlessly India. We live in a world where our idea of India is not elephants. Our idea of India is using our beautiful fabrics and weaves, distorting and contorting them and making them something that's Indian."

She adds, "You know Issey Miyake is Japanese but today when you talk about him, you don't need to keep on qualifying him as Japanese. Today he's not constrained by his nationality. I hope Bungalow 8 is not seen limited by India. When today I think of Shanghai Tang which had its roots in China, I see how it gave its craftsmanship an international idiom where people could wear it in China and outside. It felt Chinese without any clichés. We are not about exotic India. We are about contemporary India. India means many things to many people. What India means – half my life, I have lived outside India. I am a Bombay girl with Indian parents – half Kutchi, half Sikh. I have negotiated these multiple landscapes. My book, my story of Indian design – that's what it is and not anything more."

The Grande Dame Lou Lou Van Damme
"She's someone I have known since childhood. About nine years ago, I had visited her beautiful boutique hotel in Goa. My grandmother played a major role in moulding my aesthetic. And I saw a lot of that in Lou Lou. In many ways, I felt she was a kind of a replacement for my grandmother. Even though there is a big age difference between us, we are creative soul mates. We finish each other's sentences. We fight seldom. By and large, our vision is similar but experiences are different. I feel gifted that she's in our lives and she's a huge contribution. It's karmic."

Launching supermodels
Whoever gets featured in Maithili's campaigns shoots to new successful career trajectories. "I don't even think about these things. I look for things we believe in. Natasha Ramachandran, Archana Akhil Kumar – I can't even afford these people now. I look for people who are unusual. I just look at her and think this is the kind of woman we believe in or who represents us. This is the kind of woman who struggled because of her unconventional demeanour in some ways - be it her skin colour or crooked nose. Somebody who's an underdog, who's not had it easy but who had a conviction and who embraced it. We never try to over beautify them."

Promoting anti-fit/organic clothing
"For 12 years, I have tried to deconstruct, demystify the many myths people have had about what's considered beautiful. We are lucky our timing has been at par with our ideas. Beauty is about flaunting what you should and concealing which you need to. We have shown customers in many ways how to love themselves more. Free flowing can still be structured in some ways. It's not about the more you show. It's about the less you show and how you show it. I don't think it's been easy and has required a lot of perseverance."

Personal style
"Individual. I dress for me. No make-up. I really don't dress for others. My mom Jamini dresses for herself. She embraces her body, age and her eccentricities. And that's really style. Style is about heterogeneity not homogeneity which it is becoming now – let's all go and buy the same handbag. That's not style, that's fashion. We are not in the business of fashion. We are in the business of style." Beautifully interpreted!