Master Of Waves

He’s creating wearable luxury with traditional, almost forgotten textiles and also working to change the representation of the modern Indian woman. SANJAY GARG seems intent on shifting contexts. Meet the man behind the decade-old Raw Mango and his tribe of modern Indian women.

- Shahnaz Siganporia

Raw Mango. That tangy, tart, lip-puckering fruit that brings back the nostalgia of the beginning of sultry summers, favourite chutneys, and stolen snacks of finely chopped slices rubbed down with salt and, for the adventurous, chilli. There’s just something deliciously Indian about the experience of this fruit, as it is with the namesake label Raw Mango by designer Sanjay Garg. “I believe that beauty lies in imperfections, and raw mangoes are the perfect metaphor,” explains the designer, whose label celebrates a decade in fashion this year. And it is the raw-edged beauty of contemporary handwoven textiles that has made him one of India’s most exciting talents.

On a particularly sweltering day, I meet Garg within the cool corridors of Bikaner House in Lutyens Delhi, a princely mansion that traces its lineage to royalty and now belongs to the state of Rajasthan. For Garg, who hails from Mubarakpur, a tiny village in Rajasthan, the venue is an unacknowledged reminder of his old home. “I remember my dadi wearing a brocade lehenga to fetch water from a well, while other women wore shorter lehenga skirts. At festivals like Teej or Gangaur, women would dress in the brightest colours and finest fabrics—this is all part of my visual memory,” he says. Garg’s first big break came from the neighbouring state of Madhya Pradesh, where he worked on the Chanderi Cluster Development Programme. He explored with weavers his love for experimenting with textile, and they created a softer, starch-free and easy-to-drape version of Chanderi. Garg was unique in the balance he established between traditional and contemporary, and he brought to fashion an Indian idiom of his own. “I think I do what I do because I don’t think of tradition as the past—it’s something alive and breathing for me.”