C. Relevancia clínica de los resultados
C.3 Alternativas terapéuticas equivalentes (ATE)
10. BIBLIOGRAFÍA
[03 Jan 2009]
(About the Groom’s Mother –Sangeeta Assomull)
SANGEETA ASSOMULL MIGHT HAVE BROUGHT SUPER LUXURIOUS LABELS LIKE JUDITH LEIBER AND XESS COUTURE TO INDIA BUT THERE IS A LOT MORE TO HER THAN A BUSINESS SAVVY MIND
THE ELEGANT LADY IS ALSO AN ACTIVE PARTNER IN HER HUSBAND
MADAN K ASSOMULL’S BUSINESS VENTURES AND A LOVING MOTHER TO
TWO GORGEOUS SONS GAURAV AND VIKRAM.
IN A CHAT WITH SOCIETY WORLD OF LUXURY, SHE TALKS ABOUT THE OVERWHELMING RESPONSE TO HER LUXURY BRANDS AND HER PASSION FOR FASHION
What does style mean to you? How do you define your personal style?
Style to me is something that comes from within and you inherently have it. It is very difficult to create. Style is about being completely feminine and absolutely confident. In terms of my personal style, I think I am a little more daring than a lot of other people. I am not particularly fond of trousers. I love dresses and especially the long ones. I think saris are great. Even at work I always dress up very elegantly.
How did the Judith Leiber venture take shape? How is the response to the brand?
Funnily enough, Leiber was actually my husband’s idea. Having grown up with
Leiber, one always saw it. During shifting house one day, we were packing and I realised that among all the bags I had packed over the years, it was always the Leibers that I never gave away.
So many Leibers showed up in my collection about which I had forgotten over the years. They never go out of fashion. My husband felt that they are timeless and not dependent on seasons besides being fun to carry. The response to Leiber has been phenomenal. Anyone who has ever owned a Leiber has never given it away.
When we did a survey on Leiber and spoke to the society ladies and socialites, none of them had ever given away their Leibers and they were handed down to them by their parents. Leiber in India is the most logical brand especially when the bridal market is so large that no trousseau is complete without a Leiber. The potential for Leiber is huge.
bridal trousseau. For Leiber we would like the help of Bollywood and also the Indian designers.
The Indian couture and Judith Leiber are in synergy with each other. Judith Leiber has its own designing team and a creative director who studies the changes in the trends and the revival of the old pieces. For instance the Peacock collection has been re-configured in terms of stones and the colour palette. Ganesh - the limited edition collection was created for the Indian market and had met with a huge response and the allocated 12 pieces were sold out.
The creative design team of Leiber exactly knows what has to be revived at the right time. Leiber has simply no competition. It is super luxury and there is no duplicate. Our novelties are unique. You have a lot of designers making satin and beaded bags but Leiber and its novelties have exclusively created patterns. It is a tribute to the bride and the brand has immense staying power.
Every first lady and red carpet dazzler has carried a Leiber bag so I don’t think
there is any competition. Xess couture is known for corsets and they are our strong points. We have tapped couture in the corset area to the fullest potential. It can be worn with a pair of jeans, with a sari or under a suit so we manage to capture that niche market. Xess is about confidence. It can be very risqué but again it is about confidence. We have a golden rule. We either show cleavage or legs and that’s true for all our outfits
You will never find it sexy and revealing. If there is a cleavage showing then it will be a long dress going down. Xess couture conceptualises what fits into our design. Christie, the Italian brand has the most spectacular collection and we take everything from them with slight amendment for the Indian market.
How did you develop a flair for fashion and jewellery?
I grew up in a family where clothing and jewellery were very much a part of our everyday lifestyle. For us luxury was not about impressing other people. It was about the luxury at home. It was about perfection, for instance, a polished silver tray with a white linen napkin, morning tea and a rose meant breakfast to me. It was the luxury of style and comfort at home that came first. Tracksuits and leggings, thank god, didn’t exist then.
I always saw my mother beautifully dressed when it was time for my dad to come home. There was no question of her sitting in a kaftan. My mother’s lingerie
would be packed discreetly in pouches. All the lingerie was to be hand washed by me even when I was a child. A sense of style and luxury was something that we grew up with.
What kind of interior and décor do you prefer at your houses in Mumbai and London? Which is an ideal ambience for you?
I have to give full credit for the interiors of my Mumbai house to my exceptionally talented mother-in-law. This is her home and she has an impeccable taste in interior. My husband’s and my taste in interiors are little more minimal. We love
bright colours. Our London home has dark colours with a purple Fendi sofa in the middle of the living room. We are partial to arts, sculptures and Confetti, a brand that we will be introducing in India in the coming months.
I am very partial to Suneet Varma and also love Rohit Bal. Both these boys are extra-ordinarily talented. Indian couture came with Rohit Khosla who unfortunately passed away but I think that Suneet and Rohit have very much carried the torch forward. Among the European designers, I am particularly fond of Bluemarine.
I do wear a lot of Prada. I am partial to Columbian designer Franchesca Mirando. We are already starting to work with Suneet Varma. He had a meeting with Franks Ambrelli, the creative director of Judith Leiber. We would like to work with Suneet when we work for the next collection.
Last one year it was difficult to catch up with the fashion weeks since we were busy building the brand, travelling a lot and setting up the business. Without a doubt, the Lakme fashion week is very well done. I go for the private viewings. We are working closely with a couple of European brands. Celine and Missoni invited us to their shows.
What’s your idea of a perfect holiday?
For me the best holiday is when I am skiing with my boys. When it comes to my private time, there is nothing like the spa, the sun and the beach. My elder son Gaurav has graduated from a university in Paris in business and is looking forward to coming to India; while my younger son Vikram is studying.
You are also a patron of art. Tell us about your interest in art.
We had a love marriage. My husband and I have always liked unusual arts - very loud and eye catching. We particularly like Salavdore Dalli. Over the years we collected a lot of Indian and European contemporary art. Art has always been a part of our beautiful home. Art keeps us together.
Do you enjoy cars?
Frankly, I am not particularly fond of cars. I drive a Porsche. But I am also partial
to driving my husband’s Bentley, which I steal in his absence.
Tell us about your fashion fetish.
I have a huge fetish for a big cocktail bracelet. Any man out there who wants to woo me can send me one. I never buy anything readymade and always spend some time choosing my collection. My favourite pieces are the gold Mogul coins, mounted on a spectacular gold necklace, which I got when I was married.
What does luxury mean to you?
Luxury to me is time. It is a perfection of simplicity. It is about being completely confident and complete with what one has. Luxury is being chic in my bed when tea is served when I wake up. It is what I appreciate in life and it is not what I show to others. It is a selfish luxury in a funny way and what goes on in the
privacy of my home. I don’t see anything expensive as necessarily luxury. I feel
there. There is something fashionable about putting your foot in the Parisian soil and it makes you feel fashionable and like a woman 24X 7.
Do you think India has a potential for luxury retail market?
I think the market in India is always going to be there. Luxury existed with our maharajas and revival came with the international fashion brands coming in. There is lot of impulse buying and sisterhood buying which goes on. If I wore a pair of designer shoe and my friend sees it, she would want to pop in at any store either in Delhi or Mumbai and buy it.
What is going to be a problem is the seasonal impact.
In European countries, spring summer deliveries happen in February-March while in India everything shuts in April and people migrate towards west when the schools close. So spring summer collections don’t have a fullest potential in India.
Leiber and lingerie is non seasonal. India has a good mix of domestic and international designers, which is not the case in other countries. A combination of Indian couture and European accessory is a great thing.
Are you also a connoisseur of food?
I am not a foodie. I love sushi and could live on it. Fortunately on the day I got
married and was leaving my mother’s home, she blessed me with a thousand
servants. So I never had to cook.
Do you look up to someone as a style icon?
Sophia Loren without a doubt a complete woman and I would love to be like her when I grow old.
BY MANISH MISHRA