Clothes for modern women

SHE looks like a model herself, with her long legs and slim frame. Poonam Bhagat is perhaps the best model for the dresses she design. Her basic style is uncluttered, understated elegance. Her pret-a-porter range is rich without being expensive. It seeks and draws attention without being loud.

Poonam uses only natural, pure fabrics. Synthetics are out, her favourites are pure cottons, voiles, chanderis, crepes, tussars, matkas and khadi silks."The fall of matka silk is absolutely brilliant and I am using a lot of matka silk for my winter collection." No heavy gold-silver embroideries here. The beauty of the fabric, the texture and weave are given importance. To highlight some patterns of for the trousseau look, Poonam does veer towards zardosi, but even then her patterns are characterised by an elegant restraint.

Selling under the brand name of Taika (which in Finnish means "magic"), she has made a big impact. Self-trained and self- taught, Poonam is not part of the fashion designer set. In the last 10 years, she has slowly carved a niche for herself. Poonam is busy, but takes time off to travel, for she feels that travel is the best teacher and she finds many muses during her journeys.

"Since I did not go through the technicalities of design, I do not experiment with cuts. I only deal with simple cuts, but I experiment a lot with embroideries, prints and colours."

One of Poonam's specialities is prints which have that particular distinctive Taika look to them - contemporary, universal and evocative. Taika prints are based on abstract geometric South American and African designs. Poonam makes her own blocks, so the range of prints are exclusive. Even the embroideries used on various outfits and saris are individualistic. Poonam has explored a huge plethora of stitches - from kapka, kasab, tilla and sequins in her zardosi range to doris and thread work in machine embroideries. The Taika embroidered outfits are the epitome of subdued elegance.

Taika reaches out to the mature woman of today. "I make clothes for the real woman, the working woman who needs to look well dressed through the day, and fresh for the evening. There is not too much experimentation with the salwar kameez." Her advice to women is to "wear clothes that will enhance and not detract from the body. "Clothes should not cover your personality. They should be a statement of you, what you wear is what you are," says Poonam.

ALKA PANDE

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