Suket Dhir
“I got into fashion by chance. Or maybe because I was so decisive of what I did not want to do.”
Suket Dhir spent the early years of his life in Banga, a small town in Punjab.
Suket Dhir spent the early years of his life in Banga, a small town in Punjab where his grandfather owned a popular textile shop. From farmers working in the fields who bought dhotis, to car-owning zamindars who got fabric for their shirts and the women who bought their sarees—it was a one stop shop for the locals. That simple existence was jolted when he was a young boy in the 1980s.
The decade was marred by a period of unrest and turmoil in the state. In order to stay safe during the Punjab insurgency, Dhir and his family moved to Delhi upon his grandfather’s command. But Dhir still remained devoted to his roots. He visited Punjab, shuttling between his grandparents’ in Banga, and his parents’ in Delhi.
Dhir’s lineage is rooted in business. His father set up a few tool manufacturing and iron casting factories in Delhi. Dhir would also go on to set up a garment manufacturing business, following in his grandfather’s footsteps. But the journey has not been without challenges. While in college, he dropped out of three courses for three consecutive years, before his family stopped supporting him financially. He needed to figure out the path ahead.
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Money was a pressing matter, something he needed to earn. At first, Dhir joined a call centre as a young man, aged twenty-one. He sold wireless AT&T to Americans for a year. “It was a good experience in hindsight,” he says. After a year of long nights at the call centre, he saved some money and decided to hit the road.
Dhir travelled from Dharamsala to Goa and onwards to Pondicherry. He hit the ‘quintessential hippie spots’ in a good old fashioned journey of soul searching and self-discovery.
“Happenstance:” that’s how he describes his discovery of fashion. “I got into fashion by chance. Or maybe because I was so decisive of what I did not want to do,” says Dhir. It was a tearful moment during a deep discussion with a childhood friend, who encouraged him to apply to the National Institute of Fashion Technology. Perhaps a career in fashion was not entirely accidental for Dhir, who loved painting, sculpture and tin work as a young boy.
That is where the journey began.
In 2009, he co-founded his own brand with his wife Svetlana. The couple work out of Delhi. Drawn first to menswear, Dhir’s line has expanded to womenswear as well. From the bomber to the lehenga, Dhir believes that his garments possess an “Indian soul”. In his collections, hints of the India he discovered are plain to see, and his patterns mirror the treasure trunk of life experiences he has had.
As his business and elan grows, Dhir remains anchored to his roots. He finds his occupation and work close to what his grandfather did for a living. There are similarities in their approach. “Dada was involved in sourcing and producing quality fabrics,” he says. His own label uses natural fibres to make all their garments, each motif tells a story.
Dhir’s rise has been illustrious, from dressing a Nobel laureate to winning the prestigious Woolmark Prize. His love for traditional textiles married with the modern silhouettes, is a testament to the many possibilities of Indian fashion.
Aarushi Agrawal
Arushi Agrawal is a journalist, and extremely passionate about research, reading, and writing.