Nitya Bajaj had her first tryst with designing at the age of six. “It all started when I began cutting my grandma’s sarees as a kid to dress up my dolls. From my family to teachers, everyone knew that designing was going to be my destiny,” the designer recollects. By 2008, she had passed out of the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) Delhi with a degree in Apparel Design. Nitya was eager to make her mark in the competitive industry and participated in Let’s Design, a fashion reality show to earn a name. The stint was a success and pretty soon everyone was pushing her to launch her own label.
Nitya debuted at the Lakme Fashion Week in 2012 with a line of fluid gowns and has come a long way ever since. Today, her designs are regarded as wearable art and are often spotted on fashion girls like Sonam Kapoor, Jacqueline Fernandez and Khushi Kapoor. In less than a decade of launching Label Nitya Bajaj, the NIFT Delhi graduate has managed to take it international as well. The brand boasts footprints across India, Indonesia, London, and Dubai. Besides the expansion of her line, Nitya has juggled creative collaborations with leading brands and projects like Swarovski, Jabong, and Kingfisher Calendar Hunt.
Good design and due consideration to everyone who makes it possible have both gone into taking Label Nitya Bajaj where it stands today. In 2020, when the pandemic left Indian artisans economically burdened, Nitya joined hands with 14 other designers to start the #SavingThe Artist initiative. As part of the effort, Nitya, Shirin Mann, Akanksha Gajria and other participating designers auctioned their best-selling designs and 100 percent of the proceeds went to COVID-19 relief. It was a huge success and the Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprise felicitated Nitya with the Most Enterprising Women of the Year 2020 for contributing to the good fight.
As a creator and entrepreneur who has struck the right balance between great design and social responsibility, Nitya is the perfect fit for our #POPxoWomenWhoWin series. In a recent interview with POPxo, she talked about fashion, her love for design, and what it takes to create a successful fashion brand. Excerpts below:
How do you begin your day? What does a typical workday look like for you?
The best part about being a fashion designer is that each day is different. There are new clients, new tasks and new challenges every day. I usually begin my day with a pure aloe vera shot, followed by a quick run on my to-do list. This is followed by approvals to my digital content team and production unit. I generally assist my children in their virtual school and reach the studio by lunch hour.
I love to supervise draping and cutting of the first samples in front of me, and sketching bespoke orders in front of my clients. It’s challenging and exciting at the same time but most importantly it’s a fun interaction that culminates into productivity and business.
When did you know that fashion designing was something you wanted to pursue?
It all started when I began cutting my grandma’s sarees at the age of 6 to dress up my dolls. I think my mom knew it then. I was the best art student in school and my art teacher knew it too.
I kept winning multiple trophies and awards in painting and design and I guess my school and principal knew it as well.
You launched your label at the Lakme Fashion Week 2012. Tell us about your journey as a designer from then to now.
I was ecstatic to have my first show at a platform as prestigious as the Lakme Fashion Week. I remember ace media personalities like Viral Bhayani and Manav Manglani covering my show which had Hazel Keech Singh, Vidhya Malvade, Vida Samadzai, Anjana Sukhani, Gauhar Khan, and Shibani Dandekar in it. It was a huge success with the media showing love and covering my first collection. I can’t thank LFW enough for giving such a beautiful start to my journey.
I won’t say I succeeded in all opportunities I got, but I learned! I am proud of associating with the best stockists in India, London, Jakarta and UAE hosting NITYA BAJAJ and it’s really encouraging when you receive love messages and testimonies from happy customers. Since then the brand has won many accolades and we showcased in many national and international shows. With small steps, we have tried to make unforgettable space in the hearts of our loyalists.
What would you say has been the biggest turning point in your career?
I was chosen by Jabong for their first-ever fashion week. I remember it was a live show with selected designers who had to design a ready to wear collection to go up on their luxe section at the Jabong website. Since it was our first digital expansion as a brand, I remember being super nervous, anxious yet excited to be closing my fashion show with the best Delhi bloggers and influencers tweeting and reposting about it. Overnight, we saw our first collection for Jabong.com sell out on the website. It came as a beautiful opportunity and I will always look up to it as the biggest turning point for Nitya Bajaj. It encouraged us to expand into digital marketing, increase our social media visibility and launch our very own e-commerce portal in 2016.
What are the skills or qualities that have helped you succeed?
I am glad I chose NIFT as my first step into fashion. It teaches you hard work and persistence. The experienced faculty empowers you with practical skills ranging from stitching on the machine to making your CAD drawings. They know how to carve a signature out of every student’s aesthetic.
Today, I am proud to be able to brainstorm with my digital team as I have knowledge of CAD, Photoshop, illustrator, photography along with coding for my own website.
But besides the training, experience has made me what I am today. I learnt from senior designers, my hand embroiderers, my tailors and my masters. My grandfather told me, you can learn even from the smallest of jobs and that’s exactly what I did. It might sound cliche but hardwork is the key and I am a very hardworking person.
What would be your advice to those trying to make a career in fashion design?
Firstly, I would tell them that working in fashion is not always as glamorous as it appears. You need to have creativity, multitasking ability, and time management skills. With creativity, you need to have the right balance of business and networking skills as well. You need to carve and sharpen your best skills and turn your passion into a successful profitable business.
A mantra that you swear by in your professional and/or personal life?
As designers and creative entrepreneurs, we often like to do things ourselves. Hardwork is key but teamwork helps me accomplish my tasks easily. Building a close-knit hard-working team has helped me spread my wings wide. I owe my growth to my team who is more like a family. Also, balance is integral. You need to know how to balance work with your personal life.
And lastly, how do you unwind?
I love my ME time– a day of doing nothing, being completely unproductive, all for myself, where I love to leave my phone behind, take a long drive, and go to a spa. When each day is so packed, doing nothing works as the best stress buster!
Featured Image Courtesy: Nitya Bajaj Birla
