{"id":45994,"date":"2012-09-29T21:18:10","date_gmt":"2012-09-29T21:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/test.tehelka.com\/?p=45994"},"modified":"2012-09-29T21:18:10","modified_gmt":"2012-09-29T21:18:10","slug":"if-a-shy-gay-man-born-in-a-bombay-chawl-can-see-this-fame-anyone-can","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/if-a-shy-gay-man-born-in-a-bombay-chawl-can-see-this-fame-anyone-can\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018If a shy, gay man born in a Bombay chawl can see this fame, anyone can\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

WENDELL<\/strong>\u00a0Rodricks\u2019 inspirational personal arc and disciplined engagement with his craft make his autobiography an engrossing read. The 52-year-old fashion designer discusses\u00a0<\/em>The Green Room\u00a0with\u00a0Ajachi chakrabarti.<\/strong><\/em>
\n

\"Wendell<\/a>
Wendell Rodricks<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nEDITED EXCERPTS FROM AN INTERVIEW<\/strong>
\nWhen does one decide that it\u2019s time to write a memoir?<\/strong>
\nI thought I\u2019d write an autobiography later, maybe 10 years from now, but the opportunity presented itself. Other designers are doing retrospectives, and I was pompous enough to think a book would be more cerebral. I was worried that some things that were being perpetuated about me would go down in posterity. If I am truthful, accept all my flaws as well as my victories, and state it without getting emotionally involved with myself, I could guard against self-indulgence. There were moments when I was skating on thin ice because I spoke about every collection I did. That was a slight indulgence.
\nIs this your personal story or a history of fashion?<\/strong>
\nAt least a quarter of it is about the fashion industry. I wanted to tell a story of inspiration. Throughout my career, I\u2019d come home and say, \u201cPinch me, I\u2019m dreaming.\u201d If I, as a shy, stuttering, gay man born in a Bombay\u00a0chawl\u00a0<\/em>could see this fame, anyone could.
\nIs the perception of fashion as an industry ruled by egos and scandals accurate?<\/strong>
\nI have seen the real Page 3. But then I go to a party in my village, and there\u2019s a rich person showing off his car, and an auntie from the Gulf doing her thing. Fashion and cinema get a spotlight because of the spotlight they already have. There\u2019s talk about cocaine in the fashion industry, but there is cocaine among bankers, corporations and the media. Every profession has the same cast of characters.
\nHow has Goa affected your sensibilities, your method?<\/strong>
\nIf not for Goa, I wouldn\u2019t be able to give this country minimalism, or resort wear, or eco-friendly clothes. It was Goa that gave me that inspiration, as a result of being close to nature and being with people who did not care where I came from. In fact, my staff had no idea I was famous till they saw me in the papers. But it didn\u2019t affect them. That is what Goa gave me: a very real life devoid of flattery and sycophancy.
\n
\"THE<\/a>
THE GREEN ROOM<\/strong>
Wendell Rodricks<\/em>
Rupa & Co
380 pp; Rs 595<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nYour book talks about your partner Jerome, but doesn\u2019t discuss the struggles of coming out.<\/strong>
\nThat\u2019s because I did not have any struggles. I was honest with my family from the beginning. When I introduced them to Jerome, they accepted him because he is a solid person. If I had an outing of sorts, it was Shobhaa D\u00e9 writing about it. That spooked my family. They were fine with the larger family knowing, the colony knowing, all of Mahim knowing, but suddenly going out into the public arena was a shock.
\nYou are planning to write a textbook on cutting cloth.<\/strong>
\nYou see students trying to cut a garment, they are going crazy because it is based on this obscure method that requires a lot of mathematical calculation, and all fashion designers are terrible at math. I can throw a pair of scissors to barely half a dozen designers today who will be able to cut a garment in 10 minutes. Indian tailors have a method in their head and they cut in a certain way, but if you ask them what that method is, they won\u2019t be able to tell you. I\u2019ve stumbled upon a formula. If you watch me cut in that method, even you\u2019d be able to cut clothes.
\nWhy isn\u2019t the fashion industry thinking about techniques and disseminating them?<\/strong>
\nThey\u2019re too busy making money (laughs<\/em>). I think there is a lot of scope for research, if the various levels of this industry come together on one platform. If I could write a book like\u00a0Moda Goa<\/em>, I\u2019m sure other designers can do a better job with their states. Nobody can do Kolkata better than Sabyasachi (Mukherjee) and no one can do Kashmir better than Rohit Bal. The problem is that like everything else in India, there is very little R&D. We need to constantly update our syllabus.
\najachi@tehelka.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wendell Rodricks\u2019 inspirational personal arc and disciplined engagement with his craft make his autobiography an engrossing read. The 52-year-old fashion designer discusses The Green Room with Ajachi chakrabarti.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":46008,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[21],"tags":[8040,8068,7056,8069,8070,7446,8071],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45994"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}