Fashion fades, but style lives on

Sanchita Ajjampur would make a fantastic model for the clothes she designs. With her chiselled looks and clean cut features she would easily fit on the catwalk like she always belonged there. Make this suggestion and Sanchita is appalled.

“Yes, but it’s such a lot of hard work!” she exclaims, giving the impression that hard work is something she just cannot carry off. Yet, it is hard work (she admits later) that defines her. In fact, when DNA first contacted Sanchita, she replied by SMS: “Am so busy preparing for Milan/Paris fashion week; heading out next weekend –– going bonkers. In fittings now. Speak soon.”

When we do meet, Sanchita breaks a few notions associated with most fashion designers. Trends and fashion phases, she says, are not as important as inspiration.

“I don’t set out to design or wear something to fit a trend. Creating or wearing something for me is because it’s at the forefront of my mind and needs to be expressed,” she says.

Head honchos of the fashion industry would consider this guileless, sheer view of fashion almost blasphemous, especially when the business thrives on season-specific collections be it spring/fall/autumn/summer or winter trends. But that’s Sanchita for you, a breath of freshness in the fashion scene.

Born in Mumbai, Sanchita moved to Vienna when she was three. Her aha moment came “when I was about 10 years old and we had a kids’ paper roll competition playing mummification…,” she says. “Since I can remember, I’ve always been oriented to arts and crafts. Living in Europe exposed me to European art history and culture, from the Lipizzaner at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, waltzing within the palace walls, to the ballet, theatre and opera, watching the Bolshoi, Carla Fracci, Mikhail Baryshnikov.”

Her interest only grew with the years. Sanchita then studied art in Paris (just in time to witness the explosion of the ‘80s) and earned her fashion degree at the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture Parisienne, and her master’s degree from Domus Academy, Milan. Her first exposure to the world of fashion came when she attended a workshop with Asha Sarabhai (who successfully adapted ethnic Indian clothes to modern tastes in the ‘90s) and Issey Miyake (Japanese designer who made pleats a popular style statement in the late ‘90s) between her BA and Master’s courses.

She started working with Italian king of fashion design Romeo Gigli in the early 1990s, designing Callaghan. Sanchita is design consultant to several labels of international renown, such as Etro, Chloe, Aspesi, Marni, Lanvin and Louis Vuitton. With the launch of her own brand ‘sanchita’ in 2005, she opened the first flagship store at Leela Galleria. The brand is now sold in 38 stores worldwide through showrooms in India, Milan, Paris and Dusseldorf, with its primary market in women’s wear and accessories which has recently expanded to men’s wear. 

Sanchita’s collections have graced the catwalks of Lakme Fashion Week (Mumbai), Colombo Fashion Week (Colombo, Sri Lanka) and the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion show (New Delhi).
“The four Fs define fashion for me –– the fit, the fall, the finish and the fabrics,” she says. Her clothes exude a nomadic essence and, by her own admission, Sanchita designs clothes for the ‘modern nomad’. “I am fascinated by the world of collectors and global travellers. The aim is to design clothes that can be worn anywhere in the world. The sanchita brand is just that — it’s for the cosmopolitan woman,” she says.

Fashion is something that comes after style. “The goal is to have people refine their style through clothing without having them become victims of fashion. As soon as fashion is universal, it is out of date,” says Sanchita. As the grande dame of fashion Coco Chanel once said, and Sanchita quotes: “Fashion fades. Only style remains.”