Wendell Rodricks
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Wendell Rodricks is a prominent fashion designer based in the western Indian region of Goa.
Wendell Rodricks is arguably Goa's most famous fashion designer and has also been listed among one of India's top ten designers. His work has involved a wide range of fashion -- from lecturing on world costume history to fashion journalism and styling for international advertising campaigns.
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[edit] Firsts, in India
In recent years, he has also joined campaigns and spoken out over the need to retain the unique mix that goes into making the small and scenic former Portuguese colony of Goa.
He has also been the first India designer to be invited to IGEDO (the world's largest garment fair); the first Indian designer to open the Dubai Fashion Week; the first Indian designer to be invited to show at the MTown Hall in Paris; and is expected to become the first Indian designer to be invited to Paris for the prestigious Paris Pret-a-Porter salon in September 2007.
[edit] Resort-style
Rodricks has been termed The Guru of Indian Minimalism by sections of the media. He is seen as having pioneered a resort-style unique in the country.
Relaxed, resort in flavour, fluid and cut with a precise sense of Indian geometry, the Wendell Rodricks signature-style is argued to have "put the state of Goa firmly on the fashion map."
Rodricks lives in Colvale village of North Goa and since 1993 he has gained the reputation for sending out creative collections for each fashion season. He has argued that it is a remarkable feat for a designer who despite living in a small village can still manage to direct the fashion trend for the country.
[edit] Study on Goan costume
Rodricks has researched the theme of the history of the Goan costume for three years and interned at The National Costume Museum in Lisbon and the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York.
As of July 2007, he has been working on a book that is in its final stage and is expected to be published as a 250-page coffeetable book, being designed in Lisbon. It will be published in 2008.
[edit] Indian clothes, foreign influence
Rodricks has also argued that Indian clothes bear a strong influence from other parts of the globe. According to him, the Indian sari could be derived from Athenian dress, the West Chinese Kushans brought the jubba-coat and the pyjamas to India under Emperor Kanishka two thousand years ago, and the 'kurta' is a pure Moghul creation.
'Khakhi' does not have any iconographic or spiritual symbolism in any Indian texts. Instead, it means 'dust' in Urdu, and was the colour promoted by the British in World War I, adopted by many European nations as a military costume and still has colonial undertones internationally, he says.
Wendell says the Huns from Central Asia introduced the long cloaks and breeches-pyjamas. Arabs of the eighth and ninth centuries introduced skirts and robes.
[edit] Indian colouring
Earlier, Indian colouring of cloth was restricted to nila (blue), lothitaka (red magenta), laksa (red of lac), kalka (black) and haldi (yellow).
Rodricks has argued that Islamic influences in the 12th century introduced 'delicate colours' like old rose, pista green, copper, violet, ruby, orange and sandlewood. Most were extracted from fruits and nuts.
Cutting of cloth and elaborate sewing became prominent after the Muslim influence in India, according to Wendell.
The Goa-based fashion designer is critical of attempts to make beauty pagents "more in line with our culture" and what he has termed a xenophobic attitude to even simple fund-raising events which are "not part of our culture".
