You are what you create. The clothes that are made by designer Swapnil Shinde say a great deal about the man himself. He does not stick to the mundane and always manages to surprise people with his level of creativity and finesse.
Swapnil put up an impressive show in Bangalore recently, where he explored and expounded the theme of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ in his designs. It wasn’t the Alice straight out of a fairy tale book.The portrayal of the character of Alice in his design is loud and funky. The idea struck Swapnil when he was holidaying on the beaches of Goa. Metrolife spoke to Swapnil and got him talking about his urge to experiment and explore the designer in him.
In most of his works, he attempts to reinvent and recreate the 60s and 80s. “Anything about the 60s, the music, clothes or even the fashion sensibilities of people inspire me. If you think people those days weren’t fashionable enough, you are wrong. They had their own inimitable style,” says Swapnil.
Most of Swapnil’s ideas for his designs are born out of his travel experiences, “People and places find a place in my garments and I prefer to reinvent design. I am
particular that no two pieces of garments look the same,” he adds.
Swapnil has made his presence felt across the globe. “I’ve carved a niche for myself in the world market and now, apart from creating clothes that are targeted at the upmarket crowd, I have also started to design clothes that are young, colourful and dirt cheap, exclusively for college girls,” he observes.
In addition to designing clothes, Swapnil says that he uses a lot of whacky stuff to prop up all his shows and the models are always eager to wear Swapnil’s creation because they always have something different to flaunt. “Convincing my models to wear that stuff and walk on eight-inch heels is the most challenging thing,” he sums up.