Many of us, growing up, would have watched our mother dressing up and admired her style, hoping to someday be like her. We may have even tried on her jewellery, messed up her makeup or gotten hopelessly tangled in her sarees. But fashion designer Seema Malhotra didn’t just admire her mom – Jamila Malhotra shining in Bengaluru’s elite social circles with her intricate hand embroidered outfits – but also learnt her skills, creating the luxury bridal fashion brand,
Shimmer, in UB City, alongside her. “I think I developed that flair from her because she was always a trendsetter,” says Seema, as Jamila adds, “I used to do all my own designing and embroidery. Slowly, Seema also got interested... It was beautiful because, my mother too, was a great seamstress,” adds Jamila.
What started off as making clothes for friends and family, evolved into more as the pair began to dress Bollywood celebrities like Manisha Koirala, Raveena Tandon, Farah Khan, and more while working alongside foreign designers to create costumes for actors in Hollywood films like Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth (1998), Finding Neverland (2004), and Judi Dench in Shakespeare in Love (1998) which went on to win an Oscar for costume design. “We worked on the embroidery for Judi Dench’s peacock gown which got a lot of attention. A lot of research went into it – we looked up stitches and embroidery styles that were done hundreds of years ago. It’s very different from working in Bollywood, where things are churned out a day before the shoot,” recalls Seema.
After decades of working together, and knowing how most people cannot see eye to eye with their parents, one wonders if Jamila and Seema ever have disagreements. Jamila confesses, “There were a few disagreements on certain ideas but then, together, we used to come to one decision, and stick to that,” adding, “But we were a great team, because if you gave me one material to design and Seema, another, we would come up with similar looks. We were very much in tune with each other that way.”
In the years, since Jamila has stepped back from the business, Seema has continued to cater to the brand’s high profile clientele in the likes of Kannada actor Ramya to late actor Puneeth Rajkumar’s wife, Ashwini Puneeth Rajkumar, and several other actors, industrialists, and businnesswomen. While her new collections have derived inspiration from Morrocan aesthetics to Kaleidoscopes, Seema finds that the duo’s initial Rajputana and Mughal influences endure. “When you are inspired by something as a kid, it catches your imagination and stays as your base. You grow with the times and current trends but if you ask me about my first love, I think that was with my mom – Mughal and Rajput art and architecture.”