Nagaland designer is the toast of Thai Fashion Week

“Thailand has a high fashion sense, and it was exciting for me to be a part of it.”
— Atsu Sekhose

The Bangkok Literature Festival in Bangkok was followed by a spectacular Thai Silk International Fashion Week, which featured costumes made from Thai silk by 70 countries around the world, including top designers from many nations.

Among these was Atsu Sekhose from Nagaland, India, whose East-West amalgam of traditional silks with flounces, frills, bows, multi-colors, created a stir.  These included ten outfits made of Thai silk, and  eighteen of his own collection, which portrayed his  diverse range of styles and forms.

“Simply amazing!” was the way the chief organiser of the event, Edward Kiti, described the Indian designer’s collection.

Sekhose is the fashion-designer from Nagaland, now based in Delhi, who has created large waves in India, having dressed up top beauty queens and movie stars. The friendly designer who graduated from NIFT,Delhi, admitted that his success was quick and unexpected.

“Before I knew it, many movie stars were willing to model for me, when normally it’s the designers who have to chase them!” he said with a smile. Among the big stars who have modelled for him, are Kareena Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Priyanka Chopra. Sekhose said with pride that he took part in the Paris and Milan fashion shows too, this year.

According to him, his clothes were noted for their easy wearability, which was why he had an ever-growing number of clientele. “They feel they can wear my clothes for all occasions, and not just for special events” he stated.

Sekhose also tried to add some touches from Nagaland’s arts and crafts to his clothes, and for this, he was awarded the Governor’s Award for “Distinction in the field of Art (Fashion Design)”.

At the Bangkok-show, his main ‘Indian’ touches were the sequins that he ingrained into the Thai silk materials.

Sekhose said he enjoyed the fashion extravaganza in Bangkok very much, as it gave him an opportunity to meet and interact with designers from so many countries. As for Thai silk, he felt that it was similar to Indian silk in many ways. What impressed him most was that the quality of the silk was uniform from all sources, unlike in India where one had to be careful where one procured the silks from.

Sekhose designed Thai silk outfits for the Indian Ambassador to Thailand, HE Ms Suchitra Durai and her husband, ex-Ambassador Swaminathan Ramachandran, who walked the ramp on the final day of the Fashion Week, and drew huge applause, for the sleek, sartorial style of their outfits.

The Nagaland designer had partaken in the North-East Festival in Bangkok, earlier this year, which is where his unique, colorful collection of clothes, had got noticed. Indian Ambassador HE Suchitra Durai said she was very impressed by that collection, which was she decided to invite him again, for this international show. In fact, she threw a celebratory Reception in his honour, at her residence, after the mega Fashion Week.

Sekhose spent a few extra days  in the Thai capital, to visit fashion houses and to study styles and trends here.

“Thailand has a high fashion sense, and it was exciting for me to be a part of it” stated the young designer. He admitted that the fashion-designer scene was very competitive in India, but there was enough place for all of them, thanks to their varied creative and cultural backgrounds.

The designer from Nagaland made a mark for himself, when India Today magazine voted him one of the “Change-Makers of Delhi”.

There’s no doubt that he’s an exciting change-maker in the Indian fashion world and a name to watch out for.

The writer is a commentator on lifestyle and culture based in Bangkok