Who took Indian fashion to Paris in 1964?

Mohanjeet Grewal, who introduced Indian high fashion to Paris in the 1960s and to the world thereafter, is held in high regard among fashion pundits. Yet, she is largely unknown in her country of origin.

She recalls an incident while working for the UN agency. One day, she was in the US, dressed in a saree, which she regularly used to wear to the office. Someone looked at her attire and asked, ‘Are you from Israel?’ It was then that she realised that no one outside of Unesco knew about India and what it has to offer.

That was the trigger.

 -(creation by Mohanjeet Grewal)-

“All I wanted was to showcase and sell India’s craftsmanship to the world. I came back to rediscover India, and I was so excited by the vibrant colours of Rajasthan, the brightness and spark all around, which was in complete contrast to the blacks and the greys of the West. Even if one were to come with a mission to find something ugly in India, they would not be able to find it,” says Mohanjeet.

The first few things she designed for the fashionable French were red coolie shirts and pocketed vests in menswear. Later, she went on to sell white chikankari kurtas from Lucknow and khadi kurtas in different colours. Then she created the bold mini-sari with the hemline above the knee in 1967 and later gold-rimmed dhotis styled as wraparounds, which put her creations on the pages of top French fashion magazines. What put her in the top league was the freewheeling bohemian chic style, which she introduced to Paris in the Sixties. It made her so popular that at one point in time, she was running seven stores in the fashion capital, with even the French designers imitating her style.

Her influence began showing in the wardrobes of prominent clients including actresses Catherine Deneuve, Jane Fonda and Brigitte Bardot, and even Princess Caroline of Monaco and the famous designer, Yves Saint Laurent. Not just her clothes, her clients loved being served cardamom and clove tea when they visited the store.

“Yonks back, I remember when I had done a show in Paris, I was walking near Saint Honoré Street (a legendary Parisian address and a temple to haute couture) and I saw this beautiful shop of Mohanjeet who clearly ruled the Paris fashion scene in the 1970s,” says well-known fashion designer Rina Dhaka, adding that the nonagenarian is “known for many innovative ideas, and clearly did it before everyone else”.

Grewal spread her wings further and expanded her offerings to Spain, Monaco and the US. She sold her designs to retail chains such as Ann Taylor and Bloomingdales, and went on to have a presence on the prominent Fifth Avenue in New York. She even had her fuchsia pink ghagra displayed on the opening pages of the US edition of Vogue magazine. However, all of this was not without ups and downs. Grewal herself admits to having made many mistakes as business, she says, is her Achilles heel; but her survival instincts have kept her going.

Her sense of fashion, Grewal says, resembles her life: unrestrained and free. “I never followed any rules of fashion. I made sarees that I wore with collared shirts. Even when I was young, I would have different socks on each foot, visible under cuffed salwars; [I] wore abstract geometric prints and even Sikh karas instead of glass bangles,” she says.

Grewal believes that what she creates is ultra-luxurious and is in no way inferior to French creations. She worked with rare, authentic and exclusive fabrics, and showcased a variety that could hardly be found in one small store in Paris and so she never had any discounts or sales.

Story tribute to Mohanjeet Grewal courtesy Business Today.