Suket Dhir: The designer of tender secrets

Memory is a beautiful, generous thing. It was the sun-kissed memory of running around the courtyard of his childhood that won Delhi-based designer Suket Dhir the International Woolmark Prize for menswear in Florence, Italy, last month. It may be the Oscars of the knitwear world but Dhir wears his victory with a lightness akin to his languid “Bullet shirts".

Filled with nostalgia and romance, his winning collection paid homage to his grandfather, with whom he spent his boyhood summers in the mango orchards of Punjab. “To me, my grandfather was one of the best-dressed men, and his style seemed to have been stuck in the 1940s," remembers Dhir, who showcased super-loose pants, which were a slightly exaggerated version of his grandfather’s pyjamas, classic shirts, kurtas and jackets in beautifully dyed, light-weight woven wool from across the country. It was a classical rendition of Western tailoring with a nazakat (finesse) that can only be distinctly Indian.

Dhir impressed a panel of judges that included fashion editor Suzy Menkes, and designer Haider Ackermann with his emotion, passion and inventiveness. The prize won him $70,000 (around ₹ 47.8 lakh) and a chance to retail in several globally prominent department stores (10 Corso Como, Isetan, Saks Fifth Avenue, Harvey Nichols) at price points that put him in the league of high-fashion luxury.

And to think that he almost didn’t want to take part in the competition. “We got the invitation to participate in October 2014, when we were almost in the process of winding up our business. I wasn’t as financially independent as I would have liked to be," says Dhir. Having set up the label in 2010, he says that for the next four years he did not draw a salary from the label. “Everything we earned, we spent on building our collection and buying fabrics. We didn’t even show at any fashion weeks as we just didn’t have the resources," he says.

A month passed by, and Dhir still hadn’t sent in his concept note to Woolmark. “I thought that I just didn’t have it in me," he adds. It was only when he got the push from his mentor, Asha Baxi, a former dean of the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), that he put pen to paper and sketched a concept. “Asha asked me what I loved doing most. I told her it was playing with my son, and how it reminds me of my own childhood. Through all those memories, there was one constant: my grandfather, a man of astuteness with a genteel presence. She told me to search from there," says Dhir. That’s what set the ball rolling.

Looks from his award-winning collection.

It was the first time Dhir was weaving his own fabric, and it was a life-altering experience. The process saw him travelling across the country for three months: to Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and West Bengal. “Working with craftsmen across the country is another form of sustainability. I treat them all as an extension of my workshop," says Dhir.

The collection explores the trans-seasonal aspects of wool and its “alchemic transformation into smooth, silk-like yarn" that allows the fabric to be fluid, yet full and supple. Dhir used the traditional technique of hand-tied and dyed circular Ikat weave through an ombré (in muted shades of blue and mustard) pattern. He also experimented with the traditional kasuti hand embroidery, an intricate surface technique. The block-printed linings with motifs of parrots, clouds and umbrellas (something his grandfather always carried) were printed in Sanganer, Rajasthan.

Interestingly, by the time Dhir received his final fabrics, he only had 10 days to cut and stitch them before the competition this January. When he finally showed them at Pitti Uomo in Florence, the results were organic, relaxed, an extension of his own natural aesthetic. The clean lines and tonal colour palette came to be regarded as the epitome of chic.

Dhir, 36, has come a long way from his 22-year-old, soul- searching wanderer self. He dabbled in several things rather unsuccessfully at college, trying his hand at a bachelor of commerce and computer application, even selling AT&T wireless to Americans at a call centre. When nothing tickled his fancy, he travelled across the country before enrolling at NIFT, Delhi. “It made sense. I loved FTV, drawing, photography and sculpture," he laughs. Soon after graduation in 2005, he worked at Arvind Brands in Bengaluru before borrowing ₹ 3.5 lakh from his father to open his own design studio in December 2009.

For his eponymous line, Dhir took an old-school approach to create a menswear range comprising unstructured shirts, sharp Nehru jackets, bandhgalas, sherwanis, varsity jackets using natural fibres like cotton, cotton-silk blend, cool-wool and worsted wool. His Bullet kurtas, with the lapels inspired by Jats riding their bikes, have become his signature offering. “It is such a quintessential Indian version of a Western silhouette," says Dhir, who believes that a lot of his clothes appeal to women who are buying them for their men.

Detailing is critical to Dhir. “I design clothes that I like to wear. I like men looking like they’ve thought of what they wore," he says. If you look closely, you would notice that each buttonhole is stitched with a different colour; the insides are flawless, and he has done away with overlock stitching, a mass-market finishing technique. The jackets reveal a tender secret to the wearer with their sensual printed linings.

The buzz about his brand grew slowly, through word-of-mouth, and via his retail presence at Good Earth, Taj Khazana and, now, Indelust.

For a brand that was popular among a select group of sartorialists, the catapulting into the limelight comes with responsibilities. It’s the start of a fulfilling year for Dhir. His fingers, with a handful of astrological rings, are busy working to get his Woolmark collection sent to stores. Plans are also afoot to launch an occasion-wear range for men. “I have a tendency to lose faith in myself constantly, over time," he says. Going by the way the stars are shining just for him, that’s not going to be happening any time soon.

Supriya Dravid tweets at @superear.