Odisha inspires designer Bibhu Mohapatra

Bibhu Mohapatra has designed dresses for Hollywood hotties like Angelina Jolie, Cate Blanchet, Sienna Miller and other style icons.

At the recently concluded New York Fashion Week, Bibhu had none other than Glenn Close in the front row. The American actor, known for her roles in “Dangerous Liaisons” and “Fatal Attraction”, is said to have described Bibhu as someone who is “really talented”. The media has already begun speculations about whether he is the next Dennis Basso (American fashion designer and one of America’s premier couture fur designers) and garnered a lot of praise when it came to “concocting genius coats that deal in leather and fur”. His clean lines, coloured furs, bell sleeves and embroidered gowns have become a toast at the international runway. With the New York show over, Bibhu is now headed towards India to showcase in March.

During his tete-a-tete with us the designer revealed that it was his home state, Odisha, that built the very foundation for his creative career.

Speaking about his journey from Odisha to New York, Bibhu says, “This journey of past 15 years has been exciting, eventful and inspiring.” He is quick to disagree with any suggestions that his growing years in a small town like Rourkella didn’t help him enough to build a career. “I strongly disagree if there are suggestions that Odisha is not a well-developed state of India and hence my background could have got affected by it. In my views, now Odisha is a pretty prosperous state in India. It has some of the best educational institutions in the country. Odisha gave me the very foundation of my creative career.”

Not too many know that Bibhu started his first stint as a fashion designer when he used to design for his sister. Stories in Odisha still do the rounds about how Bibhu would wake his sister up in the middle of the night and request her to wear his designed dresses. Today, Bibhu insists that budding fashion designers from his state have much to look forward to. “They must believe in themselves and passionately work hard,” he says.

While his Odia connect is still so strong, why then does he choose to abroad? “New York has always been considered one of the world’s oldest fashion capitals. When I started my career, India did not offer many opportunities in the area of fashion.” Though he is settled abroad, Bibhu’s dream is to come up with what he calls an “India-inspired collection”. “I am inspired by the modern woman who appreciates beautifully crafted clothes. I’d define my work as a juxtaposition of opposites, such as hard and soft, tailored and draped, masculine and feminine,” he says.

In the pipeline is his India-visit and needless to say, Bibhu is excited about it. Though he doesn’t wish to reveal the collection that he will be showcasing in Mumbai, he says, “I am participating in an Indian fashion week in March this year. It is very exciting. In future, I have plans on focusing on growing my business by introducing pre-collections and other creative collaborations.”

Though Bibhu has designed for so many Hollywood biggies, can he make the difficult choice of deciding on his ideal lady to showcase his dream collection? ” Cate Blanchett!” comes the answer.

Glenn Close on Front Row at the fall 2012 Bibhu Mohapatra show

As part of Fashion Week, The Associated Press attended a handful of shows by designers who seem on the cusp. They are not household names, unless you live among the hipsters of SoHo or Brooklyn, but based on the buzz they had among front-row players, they seem to have potential as the next big things:

— Bibhu Mohapatra’s specialty is eveningwear, and he’ll often highlight the colors and luxurious fabrics associated with his Indian roots. This season, however, he found inspiration in imperial China, specifically a Chinese opera called “The White Haired Girl.”
In his notes, he explained the look revolved around “the protagonist’s strength, courage and passion for love.”
On the runway, Mohapatra expressed his interest through his prints—red silk printed pants and a blue silk pencil skirt, for example. But he also couldn’t ignore the luxury customer he began courting as an assistant designer for Halston, and later at J. Mendel, where he eventually became design director.
With that background, working with alligator and pony fur, blue-dyed fox fur and leather seemed to come easily.
The breakout looks included a pleated chiffon ombre gown that went from black to beige, and a metallic silk dress covered in red ribbon embroidery. If he could get his ivory crepe gown with a plunging sheer panel and ivory embroidery on the red carpet on the right star, it could be his big break.

“Where I came from in Orissa (now called Odisha, India), there were no fashion schools. We had a great tradition of textiles of fabrics but not design.”
He made it to the United States via a scholarship in economics from Utah State University, but while he was there his experience in a few art classes led the faculty to tell him to apply at FIT. Following school, Bibhu Mohapatra built his reputation at J. Mendel, where he transformed and reinvigorated the label by using previously unseen combinations of materials and textures. Since launching his own line there has been rapid and profound growth in his collections. His designs have become increasingly refined and subtle, yet they have not lost the power to captivate. Mr. Mohapatra has remained a fierce explorer of his own deep imagination.

Much like his individual pieces, his seasonal collections also bare the stamp of thoroughness. The most illuminating thing I learned during my time visiting with him at the C.F.D.A Incubator was his concept of the life cycle of clothes.

“I can make a great dress. It can be praised and photographed and everyone can love it, but it is not complete until a woman buys it and wears it.”
The intensity and articulate way in which he stated those words reveals the passion and drive behind Bibhu Mohapatra. His designs, his collections, his brand, all matter a great deal to him. He is a smiling, warm, and likable man, but he has the spine of steel and the fire in his eyes that all great artists possess. His most recent collection had more length and less visible complexity than his past efforts but when you looked closer the technique, the imagination, and the degree of difficulty were clearly visible. To see the clothes is to see the artist, and to know the artist is to understand the clothes.