A designer with five decades of work as her repertoire, an Indian couturier who way back in the 1970s set up her own label, Saz, pat in the middle of Manhattan. A grand lady who lives in a home listed as a palace in the famed book Le Palais De L’Inde. A revivalist who has done utmost justice to the craft of silver furniture. Adarsh Gill, the more you speak of her, the lesser justice you do to a dynamo I have known for the last 20 years. For one her energy is inimitable. I can count women on my fingertips who, at her age, get up each morning with such a ‘zest to do’.
All set to discover, create, launch and restore. So often she calls, in the wee hours, wanting to know if crafting a new line of colonial furniture would be a stream worthy to produce. Or if at her flagship store, she should have more bridals or uber chic Westerns… As she laughs, “I am a young old woman.” In her palatial home I have met Emanuel Ungaro, in India for a no meet press quiet mission.
Had a sit-down meal with actor Sanjay Khan, who is like her family and bonded with the veritable who’s who of the country. All this over a sit-down meal served on her vintage table, bought from a Maharaja with the finest Chinese cabinet by its side. Over the finest French wines, the best fish curry and yummy chur chur parantha (a house specialty) you can hope to devour knowledge of exactly where the global lotus eaters are holidaying, partying or simply idling their decadent life away. However, it is her sharp design sense, her understanding of silhouette, her hawk eye for detailing, and her mastery over embellishments, textural treatments and embroideries that make Adarsh Gill one of the few truly couture labels of India. Born to a leading, traditional, affluent Sikh family, Adarsh found herself and her sister married off to an industrialist family in Panama at age 17.
Mother at age 18, Adarsh, in her mid20s, found herself fending for herself in New York. “Those days it was rare for anyone to venture to London… Panama sounded like many moons away. But we loved the life there. The energy of the many rich Indian families who had made their fortune in Latin America in the late 1960s, early 1970s.” She moved to the US in the mid-1970s.She set up her label Saz and sold out of Manhattan’s trophy stores like Neiman Marcus and Macy’s. Adarsh Gill travelled to Paris in the mid-1980s. In the fashion Mecca of the world, Paris, she found a new design space for her designs. Able to blend the European colour palette and design sensibilities with the rich treasure trove of Indian handcrafting techniques, she slowly became the chosen beader for every fabled couture house worldwide.
From Dior, to Ungaro, to Balenciaga, Hermes, she was creating luscious embroideries for them all. Living the high life in uptown Paris, in a chic apartment and coming back to India to be with family, especially her sister, when she did get homesick. A need, an urge to return to her roots brought her back to her country and her palatial, colonial home in Lutyens’ Delhi that has three wings, a swimming pool, gardens on each side and a kitchen garden full of organically grown herbs and vegetables. Filled with rare art, a few Ravi Varmas, Indian miniatures, a rare Tanghka and a few works by contemporary masters, this home is a perfect space to view the mastery struck by Adarsh Gill Homes, her design oeuvre through which she showcases the finest vintage furniture made from solid silver, encrusted onto the finest rose wood and sculpted, beveled, chiseled to ornate, ornamental designs reminiscent of both the Art Deco and Victorian era. She continued to complete her couture commissions for Parisien design houses but alongside started her own label: Adarsh Gill.
Flagging off the first signature store in Mumbai, she dressed the Indian crème de la crème. A master of both, the structured and tailored silhouettes of the West and the great Indian drape form of the East, her fashion sense is a fusion of oriental forms and Western elements. A creator of veritable heirlooms, Adarsh Gill recreates the life lived by the Indian Maharajas of yore. Her colours, textiles, embroideries and embellishments exude an understated elegance that allows the wearer to subtly shine through.
From rich Velvets to the finest Lamés, French Chiffon to Lace, statuesque silhouettes meet sensual forms and whisper like drapes complete the picture perfectly. Adarsh Gill blends world influences into one fashion statement. In her hands, lifestyle finds a new meaning. Like past influences finding a new vocabulary and costuming blending into the informality of today.