Rajesh Dhakhwa's four-hour designs

KATHMANDU, Aug 30: In the center of the capital, Durbar Marg’s cacophony subsides in those pink walls of Rajesh Dhakhwa’s newly set up boutique. Though a small place to hang out, Rajesh has been able to adjust a changing room and squeeze in cabinets here and there for accessories, clutches, apparels and shoes – almost every item necessary for a woman to prepare herself before heading out and for every occasion from parties to dinner dates and casual weekends.[break]

Along with boutique and array of clothes in on the offing, Rajesh has ushered a concept of “Ready-to-wear in four hours” dress for the growing numbers of busy urban professional women. “There are instances when one really cannot make time to hop in and out of shops or visit boutiques to get dress stitched. Thus, the concept is to serve those women, who want to dress beautiful for the occasions yet are time-constrained,” observes Rajesh.

There is a bunch of semi-ready made wears such as salwar kurtas and saree sets to choose from in the boutique hanger. If you cannot find one appropriate for you, ask the designer and he will search one from the treasure closet.

“After the client makes a choice of hers, we take the measurement and prepare the apparel within four hours of time,” Rajesh promises. Rajesh, in the last hour frenzy, also helps his clients to select the clothes, designs, fabrics and cuttings according to body type. If asked, he also throws in the accessories here and there with shoes if wished for.

Rajesh shifted to the busy streets of Durbar Marg with this fresh fashionovation and a new boutique in the already populated fashion street. A seriously matured designer, Rajesh has been in the business of making people look good for more than thirteen years. He formerly ran “Chahhat” boutique in Kupondole, a popular fashion hub among the ladies.

“We shifted and that’s new, along with an idea. Even the name of my boutique is the same – RD’s Chahhat,” he adds.

But why the shift, despite a well established name and place?

One of the contributors for turning the plain roads of Kupondole to a happening fashion heart informs, “It used to be a place of healthy competition but not anymore.” Moreover, Durbar Marg is in its full bloom as a new fashion market where mostly brand stores reign supreme. He introspects, “But where are our own local creations in such areas?” Thus the move from boutique area to the branded one in his own words is to give international brands a run for their money.

When the word boutique was still unknown in the vocabulary of the most valley denizens, he decided to play with the risk in the year 1996 when he set up one. “And even if they did hear about it, people feared to visit boutiques because the myth of boutiques being expensive was there,” he recalls and says some of the myths still holds true today. “Most of them were located at Durbar Marg targeting the expatriate community making it expensive, inaccessible and affordable for very few selective Nepalis.”

A lot has changed since then and lot has remained the same, for Dhakhwa. Kupondole now saw a sea of boutique and the trend of opening boutiques has spread to the other parts of town. Moreover, people have opened up to the idea of visiting a boutique for design wear and more people are studying fashion designing courses. This all constitute to the fact that Rajesh confirms how the market and interest has grown.

“It’s good to hear fashion institutes being set up and the growing number of students studying it. But major portion take up fashion courses just to open up new boutiques, because they see business in it,” vents the fashion designer, who even has tried his hands in uplifting the fabric business of the country.

During his participation in a fashion show in Japan, he promoted Nepali Dhaka fabrics and used Dhaka to make Kimonos (a traditional Japanese dress) and suits. Impressed by his creativity, he was given an opportunity to attend a Kimono School in Japan. And even after his return to Nepal, he has been exporting such fabric suits and clothes to Japan.

“There’s a lot to do in fashion scene of Nepal.” Adds, “It’s not just opening boutiques, fashion designers can work in fabric export company or garment factories in fabrics and design department. The knowledge of fashion and design should not limit to just opening of boutiques.”

For him, the major challenge he sees in the country’s budding fashion industry right now is the lack of proper good fashion school. “Most of the fashion institutes are affiliated with Indian fashion schools. So we study an international course, which does not have to do anything with Nepalis choices of clothes and fabrics. Thus there is a lack of contribution from the school and students to upgrade the local industry, fabrics et al,” says Rajesh and points out to the possibility of opening such a fashion school that serves a combo of international course with national syllabus.