Indian fashion had its evolutionary double-click when Ritu Kumar started selling clothes she was making in her garage out of the boot of her car.

History of Indian Fashionistas

Indian fashion had its evolutionary double-click when Ritu Kumar started selling clothes she was making in her garage out of the boot of her car. This story may not be entirely true, but it ought to be and it should be set in the '70s when one did this sort of thing. Moving on to starting her famous line of stores called Ritu's Boutique, Ritu was practically the very first name designer this country produced.u00a0 Following hot on her heels was the consummate designer Rohit Khosla, who could have been the Karl Lagerfeld of India if he had not died so tragically young. Rohit Bal and the brash new brigade followed, with Tarun Tehiliani, Suneet Varma, Ravi Bajaj and later, David Abraham and Rakesh Thakore.

But before all that there was Bombay in the '60s, sprouting sequins as it was in the process of gestating soon-to-be Bollywood and yet there were no really true blue designers here in the land of make-believe. The first goddess of fashion shows was the brilliant Jeannie Nowroji, who spawned an entire industry and was India's first event manager even before they coined the word. She promoted Rosita Mendonca, Mamta Sahu and Esther Daswani, who were India's first supermodels.

The very first fashion show I ever witnessed was the Cali-Dome show. It was held in a sensational geodesic dome that was erected specially a week before she arrived with her entourage. It was then that the gorgeous Shobha Rajyadaksha was unleashed upon the world. Now, she is Shobhaa De and a firmly entrenched style icon with a world view that spans continents.

Abraham and Thakore were creating waves in Russia with supermodel Shyamolie Varma who was the face of Lakmu00e9u00a0 in the '70s. Then there was Mehr Jessia. She was the ubermodel of her time and is now the still delectable Mrs Arjun Rampal. She reigned supreme for a decade with her male counterpart Milind Soman, whom every woman and quite a few men were openly in love and lust with. Milind was the most handsome man in the country, and being a national-level swimmer didn't hurt either as it gave him the body of a Greek god. Fashion shows were here to stay and Parvez Damania was the first to announce a fashion Oscar called the Damania Design Awards. Now defunct, winners included Aki Narula, Anamika Khanna and Jason Cherian.

Aishwarya Rai was a new kid on the block. Her flawless face and fresh appeal made her an almost instantaneous hit. Then came Sushmita Sen and the international titles just came pouring in. Priyanka Chopra, Lara Dutta, Dia Mirza, Diana Hayden, Yukta Mookhey u2014 they all won the big one. Today, the icons are Bipasha Basu, Deepika Padukone and newbie Anushka Sharma who all look like models because they used to be just that.

The fashion industry matured; the fashion weeks came and went. India is still to make a big international impact, but we are getting there. Fashion personalities seem muted today, but once there was a time...