Harsh spent six years walking the ramp for numerous high end fashion shows for six years. His good looks, slim and trim figure, and charming personality made him a popular choice for a model. He really enjoyed it and has a load of pleasant memories to look back upon
Harsh Bedi , an up and coming designer from Bangalore, India was in Colombo recently to do a fashion shoot of his beautiful creations and discuss future projects with Dilan Jayasuriya, Managing Director of ‘Good Times’ (Pvt) Ltd. Youth Observer managed to snatch a little time with both Bedi and Jayasuriya for a chat despite their hectic schedule .
For his shoot in Colombo Harsh Bedi chose two local models and did a Wall Shoot (Street Shoot) in Dehiwala and got Navin Gunasekera , a young photographer making a name for himself in Colombo’s Fashion industry to handle the photography for him.
Harsh chose Colombo for this shoot as he had fallen in love with the city on his previous visit-to train models for ‘Good Time’ (Pvt)Limited.
Harsh spent six years walking the ramp for numerous high end fashion shows for a period of six years. His good looks, slim and trim figure, and charming personality made him a popular choice for a model. He really enjoyed it and has a load of pleasant memories to look back upon. In addition, the insights he got into the world of fashion during this period stood him in good stead when he launched out as a designer.
Harsh had to drop out from College as both his parents were not in the best of health. It was then that he decided to make a career of his passion for fashion. He says he was inspired by his father who was involved in the fashion and movie industries and was also a supplier of costumes to the movie industry. Harsh also did a year’s stint with a fashion designer to gain experience.
He had his first fashion show at the Bangalore Crown Plaza on New Year’s Eve 2016/2017 and wowed a staggering audience of four thousand people.
Now, Harsh has his own boutique in Bangalore and has been in the business for around five and a half years. He has an ever growing clientele and has five permanent employees and two casual workers who join the team during peak periods. It is a uni sex boutique where Harsh designs and creates sarees, shalwarkameezes, ghaghracholis, lenghas, dresses and other items of designer clothing for women and sherwanis and similar items for men.
Harsh is extremely particular about the materials he uses and often visits suppliers to check and select his materials and the city of Jaipur ranks high on his list. He says very fine quality materials and sarees are available here.
He prefers to work with organic materials (material dyed with natural dyes) but also uses materials dyed with synthetic dyes due to the pricing factor. A litre of organic dye costs Indian rupees four thousand while synthetic dyes cost around 750 to 1,000 Indian rupees per litre. Clients are given the choice to select which type of material they want.
When designing for a client Harsh first chats to them to assess their exact needs. Then he takes into consideration their physique, complexion and features and then creates his design factoring all these features of the client.
Harsh uses traditional Indian embroidery such as zari and cutdana as well as contemporary embroidery to enhance his designs .Sequins and stones are also used with great effect to enhance his elegant clothes and what makes his creations outstanding is that all embroidery is hand done.
Block printing is also extensively used by Harsh and often he personally supervises the printing by visiting the supplier.
Harsh also consults as a stylist to his clients and the movie industry if requested. Acting as a style consultant involves long, grueling hours says Harsh. The hours can be anything between 16 – 18 hours a day. A fashion shoot will take eight to 15 hours per day.
Harsh was style consultant for Athiratha, a movie shot in Thailand and Karnataka, South India. His current movie project is Aparoopa being shot in Mysore and Chikamangalore , India.
Harsh is very selective when it comes to choosing models to showcase his unique designs and has very stringent standards that the models have to meet.
It is a matter of pride and joy to Harsh that he got the opportunity to design the wedding attire for his brother and sister-in-law and also be the stylist for them on their great day.
A fitness buff Harsh frequents the gym and also does yoga. He loves soft, romantic music and watches movies when he manages to find time. Like most men he prefers his mother’s cooking.
Jeans and a shirt or tee shirt is his favoured attire and for a wedding or formal occasion he will add an elegant blazer to this kit.
Harsh is a Hindu by birth but admits to being ‘not very religious’ but believes that humanity must come first in one’s life.
As for the future Harsh Bedi is looking at opening more outlets in India and overseas and is getting ready to take the global fashion world by storm.
Youth Observers wishes Harsh Bedi all success.
Pix by Gayan Pushpika
