Confluence Of The Best

An aesthete by default and a businesswoman by choice, Sangita Sinh Kathiwada had a vision. Two and a half decade later, her idea is still relevant.

- Nidhi Raj Singh

Growing up in a royal family in Madhya Pradesh, Sangita Sinh Kathiwada had the access to best of things, especially fabrics. But instead of taking them for granted, Sangita imbibed values of nurturing and preserving from her grandmother, mother and aunts. Years later, that value system helped her set up Mélange—the multi-designer store —at a time when it was still an alien concept.

“I’m a person who has got ants in her pants, 24x7,” Sangita says with a hearty laughter. Sitting surrounded by fabrics, even as we speak, Sangita tells us how she felt there was a lack of quality clothes made with natural fabrics and decided to make it herself. “I had to do what I believed in. If I want to wear cotton clothes, then I very well make them and share them with other people. I can’t just talk. So, I decided to walk the talk,” Sangita says.

With her family standing by her idea, she knew she had to give people a refined aesthetic. It was a time when nylon and synthetics were easily accessible. She wanted to change that. Mélange was, thus, born.

Mélange, started in a 100-year-old wine cellar in Mumbai, not only offered a visual and sensory experience through its collections, it also discovered design talents from across the country. Most of her discoveries—Wendell Rodricks, Narendra Kumar, Sabyasachi Mukherjee, Sanjay Garg, Anavilla Mishra, Aneeth Arora—are biggest names of the Indian fashion fraternity.

But, it wasn’t an easy fête. Not just as a concept, but also because she decided to give sustainability its rightful spot. “It was extremely challenging. I was constantly questioned by media, even some designers, why was I so hell-bent on including 100 per cent natural fabric clothing,” Sangita recalls.