Solving the jacket dilemma

Looking for 'the' jacket that fits you perfectly and doesn't set you back by a few thousands, either? Help is at hand with Mojo, a city-based indie design label

Solving the jacket dilemma

Looking for 'the' jacket that fits you perfectly and doesn't set you back by a few thousands, either? Help is at hand with Mojo, a city-based indie design label

The tagline of Mojo Design Studio, an independent design label owned by city-based Runa Roy reads 'Mojo was created out of nothing in the winter of 2010.' Explaining the story behind it, Roy explains, "The recession created Mojo, when I lost my job as head designer with a workwear brand in 2008. Out of sheer frustration I started this label,"she says.

Runa Roy strikes a pose in one of her creations

Under Mojo, Runa creates semi formal cropped, unisex military and kimono style jackets, semi formal shorts, and dresses with bold buttons, lapels, flaps and other detailing in olive, navy, black, beige and khaki tones. These jackets created for both summer and winter, are made out of fabrics like tweed, cotton, lycra, brushed cotton, cotton wool blends and hundred percent wool are available in sizes from small to extra large. According to Runa, when nothing much was happening in her life because of the recession, out of frustration she got in touch with a couple of boutiques who wanted to get some jackets done.

While on the assignment, she learnt that the Sunday Soul Sante (a regular flea market in the city) was about to happen. On a spur-of-the-moment decision, she decided to put up a stall there and put 50 of her pieces on sale which were already a part of her order for a couple of boutiques. "Much to my surprise, they sold out on that day itself. That gave me the impetus to get going on my own label," she says.

The Jacket Triangle
Explaining why she settled on starting off with designing jackets for women Runa tells us about the Jacket triangle, a trio of problems faced by women while looking out to buy a jacket. "Firstly, we usually don't know where to buy a good jacket from, secondly it mostly happens that they are very expensive and thirdly even if we manage to fulfill one and two, the jacket doesn't fit properly," she says. Keeping in mind these aspects and armed with her training with a denim and a work wear brand, Runa set out to create jackets that were a perfect fitu00a0 and not expensive either(her range of semi formal jackets are priced between Rs 1,500 and 1,800).

The Galliano connection
Crediting her brother Roshan as the business brain behind the venture, the 33 year-old designer also has a connection with legendary and controversial designer John Galliano. After graduating from the National Institute of Fashion Technology, Chennai in Fashion Design in 2002 where she won the Best Design Collection, Runa won herself a scholarship to do her Masters in Marketing & Merchandising at the Chamber of Commerce in Paris.

She also scored an internship with John Galliano where she not only interned but also worked in the knits and embellishment section for two years. According to Runa, what she learnt from this stint was not to really follow trends but to get inspired by whatever is happening around her and then create a collection out of it. She credits the city's lively music scene as one such inspiration not only for her present collection but also the future where she plans to make biker and bomber jackets, studded punk jackets and venture into bottoms. .

Bottoms Up
Runa says that her whole design ethos is based around filling in gaps in the current market, to do new things before it hits the mass markets and to break the existing pattern in what is prevalent as fashion now. Creating the perfect fit for pants is one of her future agendas. "If you notice most bottoms today use stretch fabric to fit a certain body shape. But what about the hip is to waist ratio? No one is working on that.

More than force fitting, I want to work on the cut and a good fit," she says. Runa is a regular at most city flea markets and claims that she has received a very good response for her jackets, 100 jackets sold at the last count at the Kitsch Mandi itself last month. After you go through her designs on the Facebook page, all you need to do is to write into her and she will door deliver your jacket to you.

Email: contact@mojodesigns.in
Call: 9739859736
Log on to: www.mojodesigns.in
For Rs 1,500 onwards
Mojo Design Studio delivers all across India.

Win a Mojo jacket or a pair of shorts (sizes: small, medium & large available, extra large on request) by answering this question
Which famous designer has Runa Roy trained under in Paris?
SMS MDB <space> SHORTS <space> YOUR ANSWER <space> YOUR FULL NAME to 57272 *
or SMS MDB <space> JACKETS <space> YOUR ANSWER <space> YOUR FULL NAME to 57272 *
* Conditions apply