A different canvas

‘Painter and clothes-maker’ is how Payal Khandwala describes herself, and she has been much lauded for being both. Her eponymous fashion label features a dramatic recreation of her art through fabric.

How has your formal design education impacted your career?

PK: After a Diploma in Fashion from SNDT in Mumbai, I went on to acquire a BFA from Parsons School of Design, New York. I think my training in fashion certainly helped; to know the technicalities of pattern cutting, draping, and finishing goes a long way. But I think my experience in Fine Arts informs my clothes-making even more. It makes me look at clothing with a very different prism; it gives me a whole new perspective. I’m more concerned with many of the formal elements of art, composition, space, line, proportion, and color - and all of these things give the clothes a unique voice.

What is the story behind your label?

PK: The label was born in 2012 on an impulse more than a strategy. When I returned to India from New York, I couldn’t find timeless clothes I would have liked to wear… stylish, comfortable and still luxurious, dramatic even. So when the opportunity arose to show at Lakme Fashion Week, I thought it would be a nice shift in canvas. I felt if there were enough women out there like myself that felt the vacuum, then we would be successful.

 

What inspires your collections?

PK: Inspiration for a collection can come from the most innocuous of triggers; for instance, my SS16 collection was inspired by my then seven-year-old daughter’s geometry homework. I think if you have a curious eye and an open mind, inspiration is all around us. I work with a palette that I pick for the collection and once the direction and theme is in place, I work on the shapes, the drape and the silhouette. Some are studied extensions of what we do, the results of trial and error, while others are happy accidents.