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Fashion, Akbar style

Akbar Shahpurwalla was in the city recently to launch his menswear store Gabbana. SUDHIR SYAL catches up with the designer

Photo: V. Ganesan

Dressing up stars Akbar Shahpurwalla

Ever wondered who designs Amitabh Bachchan’s tailormade sherwanis on Kaun Banega Crorepati or for that matter, who designs the Ambani’s suits during their public appearances? The unfortunate part is, for too long, none of his work has bee n available in the city, the fortunate part is, that wait has now ended. Meet Akbar Shahpurwalla, men’s wear designer and merchandiser who was in the city for the launch of his fourth men’s wear signature designer store, ‘Gabbana.life’ (There are two in Mumbai and one in Colombo.)

Akbar in fashion and actor circles in Mumbai is held in high esteem as a designer and his association with the fashion world for over 30 years has seen him wear different hats. From designing the costumes for several actors in movies and ad-films to opening ‘Gabbana’ and launching his own design labels ‘Aqis’ and ‘Akbar’, it’s been a long, eventful journey. Looking his colourful best, wearing his own designs, he sits back on a couch in his store and tells us, “My earliest projects in the field of men’s wear were the designing of clothing for Bollywood stars of yesteryear. Stylising Rishi Kapoor in ‘Bobby’ was one of the first projects I undertook, further to which I have designed clothing for a whole gamut of stars stretching from the likes of Nagesh, Kamal Hassan and Rajnikanth in the South to yesteryear and contemporary heroes such as Vinod Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan from Bollywood.” The actor he most looks forward to designing clothes for, as he admits, is Amitabh Bachchan for whom his most recent work can be seen in the film ‘Cheeni Kum’.

Apart from this, Akbar took the bold step of opening India’s first designer store importing clothes from the best western designers. He tells us, “The store was named ‘Gabbana’ as it was initially supposed to be a store which stocked only Dolce and Gabbana designs. It, however, came to life as a multi-brand designer store retailing the world’s top brands, including Armani, Versace, Dolce and Gabbana.” This was done way back in 1994, and as Akbar confesses, he probably was a little too early for the market. He explains, “Gabbana stands for high quality, exclusive dressing and hence you’d expect it to come at a higher price. With India’s fashion industry gaining steam and consumers becoming more aware of international brands, the store has gained immense popularity over the last five years.”

A quick walk through the store and you’d get a fair idea of what makes the design and clothing stand out. The collection includes Akbar’s own in-house brands ‘Aqis’ and ‘ Akbar’ which have a diverse selection in terms of casual shirts, summer jackets, coats, ethnic wear and accessories. Apart from this are the popular international brands such as ‘Versace’, ‘Armani’ and ‘Dolce and Gabbana’. On his own collection, Akbar elaborates, “We have tried to make something unique and exclusive about every item of clothing in our collection. All our fabric is imported from Italy, apart from which we use a lot of silk, linen, velvet and wool in our clothing which helps give it a different feel and finish.” Also available is a selection of shoes, belts, jeans and accessories again made in their own inimitable style.

Over the next one and a half years, Akbar plans to take Gabbana across six destinations in India and the Middle East. The store is located at 12, Khader Nawaz Khan Road, Nungambakkam.

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