Mandeep Nagi – Design Director, Shades of India
For Mandeep Nagi, Design Director, at Shades of India, textiles have been a passion since
childhood. “I remember stealing into my mother's room,” she says “and taking out her beautiful
old saris. I fondled them, gazed at the colours and patterns, and marveled at the touch and
colours. It was a very formative experience.”
Formative as well were her early years at Shades of India when she got a chance to travel to all
the textile centres across India. She worked with women's groups in Banas Kantha on
embroideries, travelled through Gujarat and Kutch studying different techniques, and spent time
in Lucknow and Rampur on developing Chikan embroideries and khadi fabrics from West
Bengal.
Later she had the chance to travel a lot to Europe and the US where Shades of India regularly
participated in Trade Fairs such as Maison et Objet in Paris and the New York Gift show. “I
admired designers who had absorbed diverse influences - like Jean-Paul Gautier who combined
black stockings with vintage costume’, she says.
It was out of this background that Mandeep's own design sense evolved. She loves opposites –
fine traditional artisanship interpreted with a minimalist western sensibility: masculine and
feminine: a surprising contrast of colours such as mixing orange with blue or red with a limp
grey.
“I start any collection by deciding on colours. Colours are the first thing that set a mood
for a new collection,” she says.
Mandeep feels that with her experience of more than 20 years in designing textiles she can easily
imagine a product, whether clothes or home textiles even before it is constructed “If I close my
eyes in two minutes I will know how a new piece of textile will look. The whole journey from
imagination to actual is what excites me”
As creative head of the Company, Mandeep is responsible for designing four collections
of apparel a year, accessories to accompany them and two collections for the home. ‘We are a
textile brand’, she says, ‘in which I seek to convey a unity of style.’ She has also designed the
interiors of the new Mumbai shop in Bandra West with an emphasis on minimalism, clear lines
and a sense of peace and space.
She has won several design awards both in India and in Paris and New York. She is a
Graduate and has a Diploma from YWCA and NIFT Delhi. She finds inspiration from
exchanges with the academic world in textiles and many young textile graduates.
She is married to David Housego, Chairman of the Company. They have a daughter,
Meher, aged 11, who also has a passion for textiles.
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