This Dubai-based Indian designer’s garments are sported by Kendall Jenner, Aishwarya Rai, Deepika Padukone

Dubai-based Indian designer Ayesha Depala is among those who grew up living their childhood dream of an ideal life.

With her mother working as a textile designer and her father, a textile engineer, Ayesha grew up surrounded by fabrics and laces and experimenting with them after school at her parent’s block printing factory. 

Now with an eponymous label, Ayesha’s designs have been worn by celebrities, including Kendall Jenner, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Deepika Padukone, Kajol, Madhuri Dixit, Kareena Kapoor, Elissa, Yasmin Le Bon, Neve Campbell, Shilpa Shetty, Malaika Arora-Khan, and Sonam Kapoor. 

In fact, she is also the lead designer behind the Bollywood film Aisha — starring Sonam Kapoor and Abhay Deol — known for all the glitz and glamour of luxurious fashion. 

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The inspiration

As a designer, Ayesha believes her style is “classic with an edge of street style.” Her offerings include ready-to-wear, couture, and bridal lines.

“Textiles have been in my DNA, and my love for fabrics and printmaking continues to evolve to this day. The summers spent with my family in Kashmir, the city's landscape, nature, and cultural heritage are also ever-present in my couture work,” she says, adding that her last collection was inspired by flowers from Kashmir and Italy.

Besides celebrating the grandeur of Indian art and architecture and her couture work reflecting Islamic patterns and architecture, Ayesha also enjoys exploring all things vintage and antique while travelling.

“I would often draw, photograph, or archive my images from my travels and study the works of sculptors, including Rodin artists such as Georgia O'Keeffe. I then go onto working references and manipulating fabric to conclude shapes and contours reminiscent of these works,” she explains.

Besides using unique weaves of silk and Chikankari, she says Dubai is a melting pot of different cultures, which has helped shape her journey. 

Seeing the success of her first store Ambawaya Centre in New Delhi, she moved to the UAE and launched her second store in The Village Mall in 2001.

Since then, she has been directly selling to customers through retailing and concept stores, including Saks Fifth Avenue, Harvey Nics, Bloomingdales, and Symphony, among others. 

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Making it in the fashion industry

Ayesha had to learn the ropes of marketing and strategising the business on the go. She says, 

“In design school, the emphasis is more on the product and the creation. But the fashion design and manufacturing vertical is a long and complex one, which involves procuring materials and fabrics, designing the garments, manufacturing and looking at quality control, and digital marketing.” 

With retail models changing drastically, the learning curve is also becoming steep and exciting at the same time. 

Ayesha and her team are now looking at new ways of retailing directly to customers amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Nonetheless, she takes pride that her clients have sported her garments repeatedly, even after several months or years. “This is testament to the fact that ours is not a fast-fashion brand but offers longevity with quality and style,” she adds. 

To budding design entrepreneurs, her advice is to stay fluid at all times. “Circumstances, economy, and consumer behaviour can shift, and we need to have the ability to modify, change what and how we do, and sustain,” she says.

Outside of the design and fashion universe, Ayesha hopes to emulate her own working mother and lead by example for her two children. 

“I am sending cues to my children consistently on how to or not to live by following my passion, which they have watched me doing since the day they were born. And I also go home to serve them lunch as often as I can only to be with them,” she shares.

When not working, Ayesha — who is a certified NLP coach and hypnotist — can be found learning about Human Consciousness, attending retreats in Central America and Europe, or strolling through Mleiha in Sharjah or the beaches in Dubai.