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In 2000, when the first season of Kaun Banega Crorepati premiered on Indian television, audiences "ooh"-ed and "aah"-ed at host Amitabh Bachchan's new avatar. Dressed in well-fitted bandhgalas by designer Raghavendra Rathore, Bachchan charmed millions. Minutes after the first show aired, Bachchan sent a note to Rathore: "Is it true that I am looking younger?"
"That's the beauty and the secret of the bandhgala," says a smiling Rathore. "It makes a man look trimmer and younger because it cuts close to the body. It's almost like a capsule," he adds, gesturing to his classic designs laid out across his sprawling store in upscale Khan Market in Delhi. Dressed in a crisp cotton shirt with a nawab jacket (his own make, naturally) complete with a pocket scarf, Rathore, 44, looks dapper and at ease with the vestiges of royalty that surround him - his signature bandhgalas, achkans, nawab jackets and Jodhpur pants. In the backdrop hangs a fetching portrait of his great-grandfather, the erstwhile maharaja of Jodhpur, Sardar Singh, who ruled from 1895 to 1911.
Rathore has mined his rich cultural heritage and skills to create a brand to reckon with. Saif Ali Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Bachchan, Naveen Jindal, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Yuvraj Singh and Rahul Gandhi have all been spotted in his well-tailored designs. In the last few years, Rathore has collaborated with Shoppers Stop, Carmichael House and Tanishq to design home accessories and jewellery. He has also designed uniforms for leading hotel chains, including the recently launched Taj Vivanta in Gurgaon. Under his brand is the couture line, Raghavendra Rathore, a diffusion line called Rathore Jodhpur, a menswear line called Club Jodhpur, wearable womenswear called Blue Mantra and Rathore Home, his range of Rajasthan-inspired luxury home products. Currently, he owns four stores, two in Delhi, one each in Kolkata and Mumbai.
Last year, Rathore copyrighted the intricate details that he uses on his bandhgala and Jodhpurs. "A young designer came to me with a portfolio of innovative versions of breeches. But he had no idea where the original pattern came from," reasons Rathore. He adds that eager students of fashion and design are welcome to learn from his designs and cuts as long as they know of their authenticity. "We have to protect what is ours as well as the official language of the bandhgala."
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While his celebrity customers keep him busy, Rathore has been absent from the recently concluded fashion weeks (Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week and Lakmé Fashion Week), a fact that hasn't gone unnoticed. "A fashion week is like a food festival," says a bemused Rathore. "And I am like Dominos - I only deliver when there is a demand," he adds, stressing on the growing market for made-to-measure products in India. "The adjectivisation of luxury words has killed the appetite for it," he adds, lamenting that every resort, advertised with a dubious picture of a maharaja, pitches itself as a palace today. "People want more when they invest in luxury. No one wants to carry an expensive handbag from a high-end label unless it is heavily customised." Which is why there is plenty of confidence in his brand. "Fashion is not just runway stuff. It is culture, heritage and tradition. The more noise we make about our product, the more noise is made about the product in the market. Today, everyone is making bandhgalas!"
Rathore is right. The market for high-end menswear is bursting at the seams with international brands like Canali and Tom Ford entering India under franchise agreements. Rathore, however, is unperturbed. "Running a franchise is like running someone else's horse," he remarks. At the moment, Rathore wants to take his bandhgala to the international market - mainly London, where he plans to introduce concept jackets initially through pop-up shops.
In a recent TV interview, Saif Ali Khan said of his work: "Raghu's harmonious designs, a blend of international and Indian aesthetics, carry forth the allure of both worlds. One of the pin-striped kurtas with a white collar and cuffs that he designed for me is much like a classic English Win-chester shirt." Khan wore a Rathore achkan on his wedding last year.
Rathore admits to feeling anxious while designing home accessories which are displayed in malls next to bedsheets and pressure cookers! "I would receive phone calls with people telling me, 'We are on your sheets'," he laughs, talking about his range of bed linen for Carmichael House.
What has defined fashion in India, insists Rathore, is the real estate "because the value per hanger that one is now paying is much higher than what one may pay in, say, Madison Avenue (New York)." The challenge, then, he adds, is for a young designer to sustain himself. "But if you are innovative, you can rough it out. So yes, we are very comfortable where we are, where we're going and of course, where we come from."
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Rathore studied design at the Parsons School of Design in New York and went on to work for Donna Karan, also a Parsons alumnus, in 550 Seventh Avenue - the iconic building in New York that houses most designer labels. Karan, at the time, remembers Rathore, had just launched her affordable label DKNY targeted at a younger consumer. "Donna realised that everyone wanted her wares, so why not give it to the market at a lower cost?" Like Karan, Rathore too launched Club Jodhpur last year - a menswear range that appeals to a vast age group. "I was the only man in Donna's office. I was the butt of all jokes," blushes Rathore.
It was here that Rathore ran into Oscar de la Renta, the red-carpet couturier famous for dressing Jacqueline Kennedy. Impressed with his sketches, de la Renta took him under his wing as his assistant. "While I learnt to work with cheap fabric (lots of Jersey) under Donna, Oscar taught me to work with expensive fabric." One metre of cloth, he recalls, was worth over $6,000. "We couldn't cut anything. I learnt the art of draping."
Around the same time, another designer graduated from Fashion Institute of Technology in New York - Tarun Tahiliani. "Rathore's majestic designs encapsulate the Jodhpur modern man," says Tahiliani who remembers visiting him in de La Renta's office. "He comes from a certain way of life and that shows in his style and mannerisms. He has built on his heritage and yet given it a stylish, modern context."
In 2009, Rathore added his touch to the interiors of the Suryagarh luxury boutique hotel in Jaisalmer. "He gave an English country club feel to the billiards room. He has a great aesthetic sense which combines elements of royalty without being over the top," says Manvendra Singh Shekhawat, the hotel's managing director. "He came with an army of carpenters and prototypes from Jodhpur. Yet, always the gentleman, he was open to ideas."
The desire to create "the ultimate diva" through over-the-top designs on the ramp, says Rathore, has now given way to a good partnership between the designer and his muse to showcase accessible clothes. And his bandhgala, "the perfect companion to the sari", he smiles, is here to stay.
