But what impressed our jury more than his fantasies was his sheer consistency over the years. "Rohit has a level of energy very few have and has the ability of translating personality into style," observes our jury.
Bal’s tryst with fashion began when he joined his elder brother’s export business. "I worked there eight years and learned everything about the art of making clothes...cutting, stitching, dyeing," says Bal. Later he’d move on to the National Institute of Fashion Technology, Delhi.
Soon after that, his mentor, the late Rohit Khosla, pushed him into doing his first show for Ensemble, Mumbai in 1989. "I decided to do an entire new line of men’s clothes for the show," recalls Bal. By December of that year, he launched his label, Rohit Bal Designs.
He loves to work on natural and organic fabric, handlooms, antique textiles like old Naga shawls. "I have a soft spot for malmal or muslin," says Bal. According to him, the most elegant piece of garment that can ever be made is a plain, cream malmal kurta.
Whatever the fabric, what makes Bal’s clothes special is that they scream attitude and often define a lifestyle. However modern his interpretation of style may be, he nurtures a special understanding of antique fabric. His design studio in Delhi stocks sherwanis made of brightly coloured silks that remind you of your granny’s saris and may well make you doubt if they will have any takers. Yet, worn by someone who is comfortable with experimentation and has oodles of confidence, that same sherwani will transform itself into a smashing style statement. "I believe in contemporary classicism, my clothes should be modern and utilitarian yet should have a touch of history," says Bal.
And this seems to click with a lot of people. In India, his clients are a who’s who; abroad, he has dressed celebs like Naomi Campbell, Anna Kournikova and Pamela Anderson.
Bal’s wildly exuberant lifestyle attracts its share of notoriety, mainly from those who don’t know that behind the party face lurks a rasping intellect good enough to solve crosswords in the time it takes to write the letters down—and to make exciting clothes.