On 1st of November, Rohit Bal passed away. The artist said goodbye to us just at the age of 63. Sources reveal that the designer died of a heart attack in the Safdarjung hospital. He is one of the few designers who took the Indian Fashion industry to a whole new level. The way he made the fusion of traditional and western fabrics, is worth pleasing. The designer fetched some honorary awards.’Designer of the Year’ was his title at the 2001 Kingfisher Fashion Achievement Awards and the 2006 Indian Fashion Awards. Rohit is popularly known as “Gudda” in the fashion industry. He frequently used nature-inspired motifs in his creations. Rohit had been an inspiration to a lot of people on embracing Indian tradition and culture in their work and still trending.
His last happened two weeks ago, at the grand Finale of Lakme Fashion Week, with the unveiling of his collection, “Kaynat: A Bloom in the Universe”. The theme was the celebration of life through flowers, colorful, sad and joyful at the same time. Bollywood Actress, Ananya Pandey was his showstopper.
Being a Kashmiri, his work too showcased his culture and values. One of his shows, dating back to 2014, showcased “GULBAGH”, narrated the story of Kashmir, through his grandeur designs, it used Qutub Minar as the backdrop, with the legendary classical singer, Shubha Mudgal performing live. He mentioned that he was born and brought up in Kashmir, the heaven on Earth. No one could take away Kashmir from him and that all he is today is because of Kashmir. His imagination blooms through the beauty of Kashmir.
Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump’s daughter, wore one of his designs from GULDASTAH, while attending a state dinner at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Popular personalities like Naomi Campbell, Uma Therman and Pamela Anderson also wore his creations. Looking at his work, it is clearly evident that, black and ivory were his favorite shades to give authentic touch to his amazing fabrication. In textile, muslin was his loved one.”If I had my way, I wouldn’t look at any other fabric other than muslin because it has an ivory tinge by nature,” he said in an interview with India Today in 2016.
Bal was not a person to be blown away by the so called trends. Maybe that is the reason why his designs had an aesthetic touch and also never got outdated. Famous Bollywood celebs like Kareena Kapoor, Arjun Rampal and Deepika Padukone, Siddharth MAlhotra had walked on his ramp. Bal himself had walked on the ramp for the Abhishek Sharma show.
Actress Sonam Kapoor paid tribute to the legendary designer by wearing three items from his collections and posted them on instagram.
That marks the end of an era. Rohit Bal’s contribution to the Indian Fashion Industry and also to the International Fashion Industry. The world is going to remember Gudda forever.
