JOIN USAfter graduating from the National Institute of Fashion Technology, Bengaluru, Diming Rubu decided to launch her own label because she wanted “creative freedom”.
“If I would have joined a designer, I would have been working for him and not for myself. My thoughts and ideas would have been wasted. Also, I felt they wouldn’t have given me the kind of creative freedom I wanted. So, I decided to launch my own label,” says the 24-year-old.
The Delhi-based designer launched ‘Dming’ two years back, and she admits the journey has not been easy. “Initially, there were many challenges. I started working with one tailor and a machine. Then I participated in a couple of fashion exhibitions and started building contacts,” she adds.
Her label offers semiformal and classical wear and targets young adults (aged between 25-40 years). The construction of garments is fluid and frames any body type. Each ensemble, according to her, narrates an emotional story. “When I start working on a collection, I invariably get attracted to the emotional side of the theme. For example, if the theme of my line is wind chimes, instead of using it as a motif or print, I would be highlighting the effects of its melodic sound on human mind,” she says.
“I know it is difficult for people to see the story I want to tell through my clothes, but that doesn’t deter me from trying what I want to,” she adds.
One thing, she says, she understood only after launching her label, was that designers have to keep “the market in mind”. “I have realised that while I have the freedom to do whatever I want to, but when it comes to designing, I have to focus on the market to survive in the business,” she tells Metrolife.
This is something, she says, she realised when she couldn’t make it to the final six of Lakme Fashion Week’s launch pad for promising designers —Gen Next — last year. “It was only after I sat among the audience to watch the show I realised that my proposal wasn’t marketable. My collection was creative, but not market friendly,”
she says.
This year, she is one of the six finalists at Gen Next and will be presenting her collection, “The Missing Piece”.
“It is a great opportunity. I want to make the most of it,” she says.