Twice As Nice

Striking a balance between classic and cool, designers Payal Pratap and Payal Khandwala offer a modern perspective on iconic staples. Bazaar meets the two darlings of the fashion world.

- Natasha Khurana & Butool Jamal

PAYAL PRATAP

PAYAL PRATAP APPROACHES HER FASHION MUCH LIKE SHE’S APPROACHED HER WHOLE CAREER—in an unhurried, trust-the-process sort of way. That possibly explains why she started her eponymous label more than two decades after she knew, even as a schoolgirl, that fashion was her calling.

But the time she has taken to get here has proven to be worthwhile. After graduating from the National Institute of Fashion Technology, New Delhi, in 1994, Pratap worked as a design assistant at an export house for six years. “That’s where my groundwork began,” she says. “The maximum a person learns is on the job. A classroom can just guide or give you an insight into an industry. You have to experience it yourself to understand it.” Her weekends and free hours were spent helping then-boyfriend Rajesh Pratap Singh, whom she met at NIFT, build his brand. They married in 1998 and soon she quit her job to help Singh full-time. “It was a natural progression for me; his business had taken off,” she recalls. “By the time, Rajesh had a very strong signature already. So while I used to do a bit of design work with him, I just got into the more business side of things.” It was on the job, as she says, that she learnt how to manage all aspects of running a fashion label, from merchandising, sampling, coordinating, and streamlining production to styling shows, adding colourways, and making a collection commercially-viable.