THE first Indian designer to launch her luxe collection in Paris, Ritu Beri was also the first Asian designer to head French fashion brand Scherrer. The NIFT graduate, who knitted a sweater and wore it to her NIFT admissions interview, also worked with the late French embroidery maestro Fran̤ois Lesage Рan education in itself. She shares with Salil Jayakar that success comes at the price of rejecting norms.
Q: What did you want to be when you were in school?
A: I always wanted to be a doctor. However, I spent more time musing over how the wardrobe of the medical team should look rather than more noble and gory aspects of the trade. Mentally, I was always designing the doctor’s overcoat with an interesting pocket detail for his stethoscope. My mind would buzz with designs for the nurses, starched headgear and improvisations for their apron. It didn’t take me long to figure out that this was my calling.
Q: Do you remember your first assignment as a designer?
A: I was intrigued by fashion design. I could not draw, so I hand-knitted a sweater and wore it for my NIFT interview to show how it would look. I was accepted into the fashion session of India’s fashion institute, NIFT and from there, with thanks, to the rest of the world. Ten wool balls and knitting needles – a recipe for my success!
Q: And your first salary...?
A: I have worked with François Lesage and that experience was worth a lifetime.
Q: What inspires / motivates you?
A: I love my work and enjoy most doing challenging projects that are out of the box. When working for yourself, you are working 24x7. I try my best to find a balance between achieving all at work and spending time with my daughter, Gia, and family.
Q: Were you afraid of being rejected as a designer? How did you deal with it?
A: I love taking risks and like to follow my own chosen path. I try to be a perfectionist and aim at achieving the impossible, always. My work is greatly influenced by my personal state of mind. I love to explore the impossibilities and work in an inspired mode while mostly designing to satisfy myself.
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Q: Your advice to youngsters today wanting to get into design?
A: Youngsters today have more opportunities. Youngsters today who want to make it big must think big and be hugely experimental. There should be no limits and they must must push the envelope!
Q: Your take – choose a career that pays or one you love?
A: I have always done what I love to do. And the result to it is my presence as an international designer. Whatever I felt I had to go for it, I never cared for the result. It is always the effort.
Q: Finally, what does it take to be successful in any field?
A: For a successful career, one should be self-motivated and have full confidence in themselves even if it includes breaking norms. In order to do so one might have to stand away from the rest