Like most girls, fashion interested her and dressing up in different styles excited her much. But unlike most girls, what intrigued her no end was what went behind the creation of a design? How different designers came up with different style statements made her deeply curious.
But like all others, Amritsar-based Tanu Sharma completed her B.Com and MBA in marketing to join her father’s business of manufacturing nets. It was while working there that she realised her true calling was not into marketing but designing. "As days passed, it became crystal clear to me that my interest lay on the creative side and that I wanted to design clothes," she says.
"Even while I was doing BCom from DAV College, I used to observe fashion design students creating beautiful designs from different fabrics. I loved watching them drape their creations around mannequins. I used to spend a large part of my college time with design students though at that time, I couldn’t understand fashion designing was what my heart desired," she says.
So once she got a clarity of thought, off she went to London to do a short course in fashion designing. Back from London in 2018, Sharma researched the market, getting to know what type of garments were preferred by girls and women. And then she set up Trumpet Vine – a brand synonymous with elegant and utilitarian outerwear.
Inspired by the art and craft of Punjab, Sharma fuses traditional stitches with Western aesthetics to create some chic and hip styles for the modern Indian women. None of her outfits, including the Indo-Western ones, are without the embroidery, sequins, frills and ruffles.
"It was during my research that I realised traditional phulkari was slowly going out of women’s wardrobes. It saddened me to see that even residents of Amritsar were forgetting their traditional heritage. So I decided to include phulkari is each of my pieces," she says.
And Sharma has stayed true to her word. None of her saris, suits, dupattas, lehengas are without this Punjabi embroidery.
"Over a period of time, women had stopped wearing phulkari, even sequins and ruffles, perhaps because they thought it looked too glamorous and showy. That’s the reason I delved a little deeper and began creating phulkari with a modern touch — something which looks modern but keeps the tradition alive too. Women can easily wear these creations to their work places," she says, adding that frills, sequins and ruffles lend a dreamy quality to the dress. "The fabrics we use -- modal silk, satin organza and nets – makeit very convenient for us to play around with them," she adds.
AT: https://instagram.com/trumpetvineofficial