It's hard to pigeonhole Isha Kedia’s luxury fusion wear label Klitché, mainly owing to its constructive focus on wearability and art. “Our latest Spring/Summer collection, for instance, is inspired by the lotus, we’re doing a lot of 3D embroidery and hand-embroidery, and the garments are very textured and interesting. We have a really constructive approach to fashion, and it’s a fresh take on things around me,” Isha tells us about her seven-year-old label, which has been quite a hit in the fashion week circuits.
Luxury fusion wear is something that appeals to almost every age bracket, but Klitché has carved a well-ordered niche in the sartorial narrative of the city, with its one-of-a-kind ensembles, which lend an edgy, experimental vibe.
Isha, who’s a NIFT graduate, also revealed the roots of her label’s name, which adds a whimsical spin to her brand. “It’s Klitché without a C, but a K, since our designs are anything but cliched or predictable,” the designer adds. And we have to agree with her. Luxury pret wear rarely gets this creative, and Klitché’s numbers have a rare, effortless quality — the perfect culmination of staple needs and newer trends. Her ruffled crop tops, layered khadi skirts, draped kurtas are all about wearable high fashion.
“My customer base grew mainly through word of mouth. I did Lakme Fashion Week three times, and the Hong Kong Fashion Week as well. But my customers were the ones who would spread the word about me, and they always come back with more people. And I think people keep coming back because the kind of work we do is so fresh,” adds Isha, who also reveals that when she was first starting out, people did not really want to splurge on contemporary wear. Isha’s first collection was inspired by paper planes, and she recalls it found a resonance with people from the city, and nationally.
The designer believes that Kolkata really does want to experiment and switch things up. “People really want to try newer things with silhouettes, but they don’t usually prefer very loud numbers. So I usually stick to monotones, blacks, blues and whites for my line-up, and maybe I’ll add a pop of colour somewhere,” we are told. Klitché has found a steady millennial clientele owing to its diverse array of individualistic offerings, and Isha tells us that the younger crowd is all about looking good and feeling even better.
“My millennial clients do respond to trends, but they’re happy to experiment, to find something that looks good on them, and is the right fit. They tell me that they find my numbers to be very different from what others are doing, and I’ve noticed that they come around to pick up my pieces for any occasion — from birthdays to bachelor parties,” adds the designer, who has her flagship-cum-workshop at New Alipore, where you can drop in with an appointment.
A fusion ensemble, featuring a crop top and a skirt, can cost you anything between Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000, and she also sells scarves