No Munkee See Munkee Doo about this...
Teresa
Laisom is listening to a hazily romantic song of Brooklyn pop band Cigarettes After Sex. Utsav Pradhan is
poring over his laptop, checking out the latest issue of i-D, a British
magazine that marries fashion and music. We are inside a 3,000sq feet studio on
a Noida street that appears dusty and nondescript till you notice the workshops
of some fresh names who have been creating a stir in the fashion industry. Like
Ujjwal Dubey’s Antar Agni and Munkee See Munkee Doo, whose owners we have a
rendezvous with. “Oh, he’s a pal! We meet pretty often. He’s so talented,” Pradhan
and Laisom, executioners of the hip label, chortle.
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Teresa Laisom and Utsav Pradhan of Munkee See Mumkee Doo |
However,
they don’t meet in soirees and fashion events, but bump into one another near
their workshops. “We are from small towns. Sometimes, the way things operate in
Delhi can get intimidating. So, we shut ourselves off and concentrate on our
job here,” says Pradhan. “Business has always come to us through word-of-mouth.
The growth has been organic. We do not like to socialize to get business. That
is one thing about Delhi we have carefully avoided. Somewhere we feel more
comfortable being the Sikkim guy and the Manipur girl. It’s our zone,” he says.
This
insouciance about the Capital’s scheme of things stems from the fact that the
duo have consciously retained their Northeast identity. In fact, they never
felt the need to ape fashion trends. “We took up this space in Hauz Khas
village just four days after graduating from the Pearl Academy of Fashion.
There were no internships, no market research. We just plunged right into the
trade because it felt like a natural progression. We made so many mistakes. But
we learnt on the job,” says Laisom, who has been in Delhi for the last 18 years
and knows the city like the back of her hand.
Yet,
she is not willing to give the city ‘home’ status. “Work is here. That’s about
it. We don’t have our own house also. My family is in Manipur where I go often
to thrash out designs with the local weavers. There is a need to elevate the
status of handloom from the seven sisters.”
It
helped that their clients, mostly foreigners, were willing to give them a
chance. “They understood where we came from and helped us evolve with the brand,”
she says.
Hence,
it’s ironical that the Sikkim lad and his Manipuri business partner named their
eight-year old label, Munkee See Munkee Doo. Because, nearly everything about them
feels earnest and original. Be it how they launched their label, their core
design vocabulary and even how they go about their lives in the Capital.
Batchmates
at college, Pradhan and Laisom set up the modern offbeat high-street label with
a design vocabulary was influenced by their growing up years in the Northeast.
“The technicalities came later on. Back in the Northeast, we dressed according
to western trends, heavily influenced by MTV and Arirang TV. I don’t want to
say it loud but youngsters there are very confident about their sense of
dressing. Give them anything and they layer it up with self-assuredness. The
sartorial sensibilities have a marked difference. And involuntarily, no matter
how much we might try, we look different from populist look of Delhi,” says Pradhan.
While
Pradhan was a heavy metal fan, Laisom, “a tomboy that
she was”, used to jam with boys. “That carefree style was imbued in us. Our
label reflected that design ideology. Delhi could not alter our sensibilities
because we are rooted strongly to our culture. Actually, clients like the sharp,
edgy clothes that are absolutely unusual. Earlier we mostly had foreign clients
and celebrities. Customers were happy with one-off pieces that would ensure
they stood out in the crowd,” says Pradhan, who is a voracious reader, dabbles in
photography and destresses with music. Laisom on the other hand is a Bollywood
fan, sharing the latest lowdown on celebrities and their fancy lives like an
excited teenager.
The
unease at being labeled as Delhiites is tangible. “Frankly, I am still not used
to the city. I will never be. It’s just where I have my work. Often people ask
me whether Delhi is home. It isn’t. We are in an industry where socializing is
important but we prefer being grounded. There’s a set group of friends who we
hang out with mostly in Khan Market because we are foodies,” Pradhan says. This
isn’t a calculated move, this sticking to themselves, he insists. “We don’t
belong to that sort of space where we go schmoozing with people we hardly know
in person. Fashion is just a medium to express ourselves. But it cannot
determine our lifestyle choices.”
Meanwhile,
their clothes continue to grab eyeballs for the infusion of modern innovations on classics, transforming them into
contemporary urban staples. Pradhan and Laisom say, “We are a mash-up of
contrasts – the old and the new, masculine and feminine, elegant and relaxed,
sculptured tailoring with a rebellious edge. Delhi, and India, like us this
way. We are not changing anytime soon.”
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