Designer to the hilt

As Goans, we are familiar with the concept of sewingclothes. Either, a tailor would be buried under a heap of fabric at his littleshop or he/she is invited to the client’s house and he spends his entire dayonly tailoring for the family.

For designer Kim Pereira, the idea was conceived with thelatter. “One day, we had invited a tailor to our house to sew our clothes. Andwhile she was busy doing her job, I took bits and pieces of cloth and created adress for my doll,” recalls the 33-year-old designer. “The tailor liked what Idid and suggested that I should become a designer some day. I took those wordsseriously,” she adds.

After completing her Bachelor of Arts in Economics, Kim tookup a job in Goa, where she also enrolled herself to a designing course thatlasted for almost 2 years. Soon, she quit her job to devote enough time towardseducating herself to become a western wear fashion designer. She later bloomedinto a saree designer.

“I chose western wear because that’s what Goans prefer. Veryrarely do we spot a catholic Goan wearing a saree or a salwar kameez,” Kimsays, before adding, “But when I came to Bombay around 10 years ago, this ideaflipped. I spotted many people wearing sarees and after a point, even I startedfeaturing at events wearing a saree.”

It was an experiment with a dupatta that prompted her toditch western wear to design this traditional Indian outfit. “I stood in frontof a mirror and tried different designs with that one dupatta. It then occurredto me that I could do better with fabric that’s five and a half meter long.”

Kim describes her designs as contemporary and stylish thatis meant to accentuate a woman’s curves. “A saree is considered to be verytraditional, but my designs are traditional and stylish,” Kim says furtherexplaining what she means, “Kim Pereira designs include ‘Seven-Yard Sarees’,‘Pre-Stitched Sarees’ where the pleats are already sewed and have a marrowpallu. I also create a ‘Two-Piece Lahenga Saree’. As the name suggests, thispiece can be draped as a saree as well as a lahenga because of the detachable pallu.And lastly, I encourage my customers to reuse their old sarees. It’s called a‘Wrap-around Saree’, and it can sit on your body in two minutes.”

Kim left Goa for Mumbai in order to follow her dream. Shebuilt a career all by herself. “I lost my dad when I was 6-years-old and my momwhen I was 11. I managed on my mother’s savings as long as I could,” she says.

Today, the label Kim Pereira is recognized amongcelebrities. When asked which celebrity could pull-off her designs, shementioned two names. “It has to be Katrina Kaif as she is very graceful andSonakshi Sinha for her confidence.”

Kim Pereira designs are usually customized and range betweenRs. 4000 to Rs. 35,000 per piece. However, she also creates designs that areretailed in a wholesale market, but these designs do not carry her label. Kimis currently working on a new area where she plans to blend western and Indiandesigns. “I’m trying to mix the two cultures with designs like roses,semiprecious stones on a saree,” she says.