Meet Ritu Beri, the ‘selfish’ designer

The first-person singular pronoun “I” comes up often when designer Ritu Beri speaks, though not in a self-indulgent way. It’s a reflection of her strong sense of identity, of creating a niche in a world dictated by trends and keywords.

That’s one of the reasons the designer launched Escape Goa, an immersive lifestyle space housed in a 200-year-old Portuguese villa in Socorro, earlier this year. Painted in her signature red-and-white colour combination, the space allows visitors to eat at a fine-dining restaurant overlooking a paddy field, enjoy performances by musicians and stand-up comics, listen to talks on various issues, explore pop-ups by homegrown brands that make accessories, perfumes and jewellery, and browse through Beri’s resortwear. It’s a relatively new retail concept that’s popular in the West and finding a footing in India, where a designer curates a range of experiences under one roof.

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Interestingly, Beri has no store besides the resortwear space at Escape Goa. She takes orders online and then works on designs. “I am not really a retail-oriented person who wants too many stores,” explains Beri, who divides her time between Delhi and Goa.

In a career of three decades, Beri, who is in her early 50s, has racked up many firsts—the first Indian designer to showcase at the Paris Haute Couture Week (1999); the first to head a French fashion brand, Scherrer (2000; a three-year stint); the first to open the inaugural edition of Lakme Fashion Week (2000). In between, she’s dressed the who’s who of the world, from former US President Bill Clinton to actor Madhuri Dixit Nene, opened and shut a store in Paris, and sold her designs at popular multi-brand stores like London’s Liberty and Paris’ Galleries Lafayette.

What set her apart from her batchmates at Delhi’s National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), including the late Rohit Bal, and Rina Dhaka—it was the institute’s first batch—was her ability to bring together traditional and global aesthetics in a boho, flamboyant way.

These included signature layered ghagaras, frilly dresses, sari-inspired skirts, mesh bikinis under coats, and heavily embroidered salwar-kameez, which brought her Punjabi roots and rock ‘n’ roll together.

When her garments were presented in Mumbai in March as part of a special gala night, marking 25 years of the Lakme Fashion Week, her design vocabulary was loud and clear: All fun and lively, but sharp and clean.

In an interview with Lounge, Beri talks about her work, being selfish, and why she doesn’t plan to sell out to a large corporatised entity. Edited excerpts:

What’s the idea behind Escape?

To create an immersive space where you can tell a brand story through narratives rather than expecting people to just come, shop and leave. It’s also my way of challenging myself to do something that’s new. A brand is not just about clothes.

Is this the start of a new chapter in the Ritu Beri brand?

Can you imagine doing the same thing every day for the rest of your life? You have to be a very bored and sad human being. Paris (couture week), Scherrer were my attempts at reinvention.

When Indian designers showcase internationally, especially in Paris, the garments are more modern. Your first Paris haute couture showcase was strictly traditional…

I wanted to give the French a real Indian experience and shock them with our beauty and tradition. My models walked barefoot with alta on their feet. I don’t think it was a risk; I still don’t think about what people will think.

A creative person can’t get distracted by what others will say; you have to roll the dice and do what you believe in. I have blinkers on and I’m a very selfish person in that respect. When I started the brand, I didn’t go with the purpose of filling a gap or becoming famous.

I joined NIFT because I wanted to be one of the 25 people they were going to select from across India—that was my challenge to myself. I had no idea what the fashion industry was about. I had planned to be a doctor because mine was a family of doctors. It was all just random.

Today, several forces, especially social media, play a role in the way brands present their work…

I did fashion week when I felt like doing it. When I don’t feel creative enough, I don’t do fashion week. I am living my life on my terms and not by the norms of what social media, or what is expected of me.

I don’t live by the rule book of life of a fashion designer. What’s important to me is that I have to like what I do, even if nobody else likes it. Fashion, creativity, design, aesthetic is a very personal thing.

Of course, there have been many challenges along the way. There have been times when I’ve not sold clothes to somebody because they don’t look good in it. My daughter thinks I’m a very bad salesperson because I refuse to let somebody buy something which will not look good on them. But I have always had customers; I was destiny’s child.

Escape, for instance, is completely my indulgence to do what I believe in and do what I’m passionate about. And that’s why it’s completely out of the box.

Do you believe not following the ‘rule book’ has come at a cost?

Maybe I would have sold to a corporate, but then I’ve made a conscious decision not to sell my brand. I don’t want to make underwear with Ritu Beri on it. Some people are driven by their P&Ls (profit and loss) and their commercials. Some people are driven by 10,000 stores.

I’m not a retail-oriented person. But I am still very much here, talking to you about my work, running my business, making fashion.

How has the industry and the consumer evolved over the years?

Today, people run wild because they want to be trendy and cool. They are dressing up all the time. They want to look good even when they wake up in the morning. When I started, people didn’t really understand fashion. It wasn’t fashion at that time; it was dressing for an occasion. Clients would come to me for a dress and I would suggest, “I want to dress you in purple”. They would say, “I’ve never seen anyone wear purple. Give me something that everyone is wearing.” Everyone wanted to follow the trend; they didn’t create a trend.

Did that frustrate you, especially after your Paris stint?

There were designers trying to find a footing in India, and a young me was finding a footing in Paris.

I was flying high because my work in India was being applauded. And then I was exposed to the fashion industry of Paris. I told myself, “If I’m really that good, let me do a show in Paris and get myself that kind of recognition”.

It was a different trip altogether, and it spoiled me because after that, working in India was difficult. The fashion industry here was just starting. It was a different ballgame; they (the Parisians) had a way of doing things, professionalism, which we did not even understand then.

It was intimidating because the kind of people watching me were those who really understood fashion. Not like your Page 3 folks back home. The media there was exposed to the global fashion world. In India, we were educating our media about fashion at the time.

Did the attention ever get to you?

I have parents who always brought my head down. I live my own life judging myself. I’m a handful.

This is the first part of a limited series, Fashion@25, to mark the Indian fashion industry’s silver anniversary.

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