CHENNAI: Designer Prabha Narsimhan’s design outlet, Amrita Design Studio, is as bustling as its external environs in Nungambakkam. As you enter the studio, you can find colourful threads and drapes brought to life by nimble hands working delicately to create design solutions. “I like to keep the studio environment homely, and a tad messy,” she says. We speak to the 66-year-old designer, known for her bespoke tailoring and exquisite blouses, about her latest label, Trion.
Trion is a collection of Indo-western, semi-stitched kurtas for the modern woman. “It was my father’s idea. A year ago, he told me ‘people don’t have the patience to wear sarees. They want to just pull something off the rack and wear it on top of their jeans and go to work’, and that made me think,” she recalls. The name, Trion, pronounced as ‘try on’, was also coined by her late father. “He was 96 when he came up with this, and it’s amazing how he could think of such modern concepts,” she shares.
She launched Trion in a sale in Mumbai last August, with a preview in Chennai prior to that. “My Chennai clients already bought a few before the exhibition in Mumbai. It was a runaway success,” she says. “Nobody has experimented with semi-stitched Indo-western or western for that matter, it’s normally fully done,” she says.
While linen remains her favourite fabric, Prabha also uses vegetable-dye prints, silk linen, cotton, tassar, and Madhubhani prints in a quirky yet elegant manner. The collection includes earthy and vibrant tones, and it can be paired with trousers, palazzos, jeans, chudidars, and flannel pants.
Given that the outfits are sem-stitched, there is a generous amount of cloth space for you to customise — long or short sleeves, slim or curvy bodice, long or short lengths, deep or shallow necks etc. “Semi-stitched pieces do not require so much detail in the beginning. When it’s bought, the customer gives it to me for the finishing touches,” she explains.
On an average, Prabha adds four new pieces every week, along with her regular bespoke tailoring. “Many people ask me to recreate the same design, but I may not be able to get the same fabric. I may make something similar, but not the same,” she says.
One of her biggest challenges is that she doesn’t mass-produce which makes it difficult to make several pieces of the same design. “At a time, there will be around 20-25 pieces. As people take it off the shelf, I add more,” she says, adding that she hopes to create a niche. “My father advised me to keep it at affordable prices. I have priced it at `3,500-`6,000. People don’t bat an eyelid for that pricing now if they’re looking for something unique,” she says.
Prabha aims to keep the Trion label going, in memory of her father. “It’s not easy to keep thinking of new designs so frequently. But I love doing it, and it keeps me stimulated,” she says.
Amrita’s is located at #21, Jaganathan Road, Nungambakkam. By appointments only. For details
call: 42023630, 9840100001
