I do whatever comes naturally to me: Rajesh Pratap Singh

When almost every designer is talking about ‘inspirations’ and raising awareness about various issues plaguing the society at large, top Indian designer Rajesh Pratap Singh is choosing to walk the road less travelled.

The usually media shy homegrown talent surprises us as he reveals to After Hrs that he never works with inspirations as he approaches his line as a tailoring job that he is doing.

“Basically, I don’t work with inspirations. There are constant ongoing experiments. My works reflect a compilation over a period of time. Show inspiration is a dream and also a marketing tool. At the end of the day we are basically tailors who do our job,” he tells us.

Rajesh Pratap brought the perfect finale to a controversy-stricken Delhi fashion week with his line to thundering audience appreciation. However, the term grand finale is only a farce this time around.

The fashion week that started with a big hick-up as Day One was cancelled after FDCI could not obtain the fire license in time has added one more day after the finale to pacify the designers including the likes of Ritu Beri and JJ Valaya. We asked
Rajesh to talk on this.

“It was unfortunate what happened on the first day. Need of the hour is to support the industry. All shows and all designers contribute in making the industry better. Doing the first day first show or the finale is hardly of any consequence in that sense, but I am honoured to be back at the WIFW doing the finale a second time,” he says.

Talking about his line that he showcased at the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week, he says: “There is an amalgamation of structured and soft shapes. I have made a lot of structured clothes and given them a soft shape such as hand-tailored jackets,” he says.

Ask him to reveal how he chooses the subject on what he will focus for a particular season, and he shoots: “There is no formula really. We don’t choose, it chooses us. I do whatever comes naturally to me at that moment in time, and I am really not so planned and organised.”

Talking about if the homegrown designers are living up to international standards and the debate on whether Indian designers should concentrate more on the country’s market because their chuck of clientele comes from India, Rajesh says: “Designers should do what they do and find a niche, whether it’s in India — a designer’s job is to create a solution, and find their own language — everyone ends up finding their own client. Some find lots of them and some a few, but everyone speaks in their own way and when people somewhere in the world understand what you say, they come to you. This could be in India or outside.”