“Everything inspires me at random times. I keep a sketch book near me always. But what I truly enjoy is creating new clothes.” This is none other than iconic designer Wendell Rodricks.

Wendell is regarded as one of India’s top ten designers and his forte lies not just in designing clothes, but also in writing, lecturing on world costume history, being a stylist for international advertising campaigns, environmental activist and much more! He even mentors young budding designers from time to time and participates in Art and Literary Festivals in Goa. Myntra was privileged to interact with him when he came as a judge to finalize designers for the Myntra Fashion Incubator programme and the chosen designers even more so to have him as a mentor in the programme.

Every artist has an inspiration around which their work is centered. For Wendell, his inspiration comes from ancient India and it distinctly reflects in his designs which have patterns of ancient Indian geometry. At his native place Goa, he revived the traditional Goan weaving which was close to becoming a dying craft. His garments used the same weaves which were later showcased at Indian Fashion Week, placing Goa on the fashion map. His attempt to bring back the work of traditional Indian artisans is highly admired. In 2014, he was awarded the Padma Shri for his work. Last year he was honoured by the French Ambassador to India, Francois Richier, with the medal of the Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters (Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres).

Here are some behind the scene shots of Wendell at work for the pre-fittings for his show at Wills India Fashion Week in 2014.

In his own words, fashion designers need to have an ‘own India trend’ instead of blindly trying to ape Western fashion trends. “We need to make our fashion look Indian. The beauty of India is we have a huge diversity and large repertoire of garments that we need to explore.”

We recently showcased Vani Kola, one of the driving forces of Indian e-commerce industry. In continuation to our series focused on highlighting the key driving forces in Indian e-commerce and fashion industry, we will continue to bring to you change makers of our industry. Watch out this section for more…