Amit Hansraj can tell you a lot about Indian fashion. For over 20 years, he has worked across the industry—in merchandising, marketing, styling, even blogging, before launching his own label, Inca, just four years ago. Now, at 46, he is adding a new title to his resumé: creative director of the Wendell Rodricks label. The label is currently owned by Purple Style Labs, a retail conglomerate helmed by entrepreneur Abhishek Aggarwal, who bought it in 2020, months after the Goa-based designer’s untimely death.
It’s an announcement that’s had the Indian fashion world abuzz over the last 24 hours, and one Hansraj doesn’t take lightly. “I feel honoured. Not nervous, but honoured. If I can manage to not get influenced by other people’s expectations of Wendell, then I shall be able to manage it pretty well,” he shares.
While Hansraj never got the chance to meet Rodricks himself, he has spent a considerable time speaking to the icon’s friends and family as well as deep diving into the label’s extensive archives, to get a better sense of the man whose work he had long admired. For his first collection, he reimagined Rodricks’s garden in Goa. “I used pleating to create ‘leaves’ out of satin that would imitate the structure of a coconut palm,” says Hansraj, whose key inspiration piece was a big garland or top made of actual coconut leaves that are shredded, painted gold, and decorated with shells and coral.
The collection features over 25 pieces—dresses, jumpsuits, even a pre-stitched sari—in free-flowing fabrics such as chiffon and georgette. It was designed to the tune of ’90s dance music act Enigma’s meditative, lyrical sounds. “There was something very surreal and spiritual about it; I watched the videos on loop as well. Plus it’s nostalgic and reminds me of my teenage, ” he recalls.
As he takes the reins of this label, Hansraj writes an open letter to its much-loved founder.
