Legacy Keepers Of Indian Heritage: How Tarun Tahiliani And Maharani Radhikaraje Gaekwad Of Baroda Celebrate Art

The year is 1988, the city Mumbai, or Bombay as it is called then. A young journalist is getting ready for her assignment to attend an ‘in-store event’ in Colaba at a newly launched ‘boutique’ called Ensemble. She is dressed in her ‘rain sturdy’, plebian dress and red, plastic shoes! Certainly not prepared for the over the top glamour that is about to hit her.

She walks into a tone on tone space, designed with restraint and exuding an ambience that is much ahead of its time. A spot-lit ramp crafted for the evening sits in the heart of the store, champagne flutes are doing the rounds and the room is overflowing with the city’s crème de la crème. Besides the fashion legends who are showing today: The chic duo Abu Jani- Sandeep Khosla, a stunning Asha Sarabhai who has just returned from her show at The Egg in Japan, a graceful Sunita Kapoor and a handsome Rohit Khosla. Mehr Jesia, Anna Bredemeyer, Shymolie Verma are the models for the day. And, in the midst of it all this brouhaha stands a young, tall and thin Wharton returned man who is quietly controlling this new age symphony. Its none other than Tarun Tahiliani, management graduate who is getting bitten by the fashion bug and is on the cusp of creating his own label that is to follow a few years later. The journalist of course is me. So enamoured by what she witnessed that evening that it never got wiped out of the microchip of her brain.

Cut to 2026 and I am once again in the room with Tarun Tahiliani. Now a legend he has just returned from Hyderabad after celebrating thirty years of his label at the British Residency. A show inspired by William Dalrymple’s book White Mughals that talks of white men like David Ochterlony, who turned the Old Delhi home of Dara Shikoh into his Mughal mahal wherein he resided with his thirteen concubines. And the clandestine romance between British officer James Achilles Kirkpatrick and Begum Khair-un-Nissa, the granddaughter of Nawab Mahmood Ali Khan, the Prime Minister of Hyderabad.

He is on our cover where he shares the space with modern India’s most iconic Maharani, Radhikaraje Gaekwad of Baroda, statuesque, stunning and intelligent. She fills the room with her infectious smile and grand persona and Tarun is delighted to be, ”In the inspired company of someone whose contemporary style I truly admire.” Though a protagonist of India modern, Tarun is equally influenced by India regal, especially the women of that era who were swathed in draped costumery. A look personified by Raja Ravi Varma’s sensuous muse, clad in a translucent Chanderi. Or the elegant portraits of legendary Maharanis like Sita Devi of Kapurthala and Maharani Gayatri Devi of Jaipur.

Trained in fit, form and tailoring from FIT, New York, Tarun has eternally romanced with the flowing drape form that slenderly gathers around a buxom Indian woman, like a whisper of a wind. He has taken the art of drapery beyond the conventional sari to the structured silhouette of a gown, adding plisse, pin tuck and pleats to give it a luscious layering . His mastery over textural crafts, his airy fairy couture, his skilled pintucks, his sexy, fit forms juxtaposed with sumptuous drapes adding to his design archives. His anecdotal stories finding way in his book, co-authored by Alia Allana titled: Tarun Tahiliani: Journey to India Modern wherein he celebrates his transformative journey with history and heritage.

An astute, forward thinking business man, besides being a purist designer, Tarun’s tryst with expansion took a leap of faith when he signed up with Aditya Birla Fashion & Retail Limited in 2021 with a vision to make formal, Indian couture more accessible to fashion seeking men with Tasva. On a roll with stores mushrooming across the country, Tasva, his diffusion menswear line is giving a run to existing brands, fading their loud designs with his practiced understatement. Men just cannot get enough of his tone on tone kurtas, his chic achkans and classy bandgalas. After Tasva it was time to treat young ladies with everyday luxury. Hence was born his ready to wear label OTT that is dressing young girls in glamour that feels couture but, exudes a sense of here and now. He calls this brand his legacy. “Something that the current generation will identify with.”

A big protagonist of understatement, Tarun feels, “Indian fashion is going through a journey of refinement. Today even bridal wear is toning down, getting softer. But then there are so many India’s. V.S. Naipaul called us a million mutinies, today we are a billion mutinies. However, I feel the initial euphoria towards over the top fashion has settled down and Indian fashion seekers are understanding the importance of buying good, buying less and wearing it a hundred times.”

Which is something Indian Rajput women like Radhika do to perfection. Often dressed in a finely draped Chanderi sarees that she inherited from her mother in law, Rajmata Shubhangini Raje. Or a vintage Baroda Shalu that she has revived in Banaras, Radhika adds, “ What we wear is possibly the most tangible form of who we are. It’s true that In the past royalty also patronised European labels like Schiaparelli, Ferragamo, Cartier etc, but Princely families first and foremost were and remain true patrons of indigenous craft.”

Born a Princess of Wankaner, she grew up simply as a senior bureaucrat’s daughter, moving residence across Madhya Pradesh where her father, M.K. Ranjit Sinh, also a much respected animal rights activist (He was integral to penning the India Wildlife act in 1972) spent his life protecting forest reserves and creating wildlife sanctuaries . She started working as a cub reporter in Indian Express writing stories that touched culture, art and fashion. Till overnight she wed the Maharaja of Baroda and became the Maharani of Baroda.

Not just a beautiful woman, Radhika is also a feisty soul whose actions go far beyond the role of a modern day Maharani. Whilst the world talks of her home, the Laxmi Vilas Palace, a symbol of Indo- Saracenic Architecture, four times the size of the Buckingham Palace, Radhika goes about her life, quietly pursuing issues related to gender and inclusivity. In a state still caught up in a traditional value systems, she opened Gajra Café, a quirky and cool eatery on the ground floor of Chimnabai Udyogalya that serves delicious Maratha food and, hold your breath, is run totally by LGBTQ.

Sitting by the banks of the Sursagar Lake, the Udyogalya is her temple of change where she addresses the issues of women empowerment, women safety and skilling in the most unique way. ”The Indian woman personifies feminine grace. Unlike the rest of the world she does not confuse leadership with the broad shoulder, power look. Instead she, no matter who she is, dresses up each day in a beautiful, neatly draped sari, adding a fragrant Gajra to her pinned hair, drawing a Bindi on her forehead! She goes about her life empowered and comfortable in her skin, celebrating life.”

And, inspired by this woman she creates campaigns that challenge stereotypes. She invites various women led, self-help groups across Gujarat to sell through the Padmaja store founded by her daughter Princess Padmajaraje. In her vocational school she trains women and LGBTQ in the business of beauty. Through her campaign Nari Ki Savari she encourages women to drive cabs “My work at the Udyogalaya defines me , lends a sense of integrity and purpose to my life. There are so many layers to India that I have seen and lived: As an IAS officer’s daughter, a royal and a conscious Indian. When I am working at the Udyogalya, I connect with all these levels.”

Someone who, “Loves to dance,” Radhika also founded Palace Garba that has quietly taken over other garba act that take over Gujarat every Navratri with its unique choice of music, pulsating energy and innovative décor. Besides of course the beautiful sight of the Maharani herself mingling with the crowd, dressed in a Chaniya Choli dancing away!

As we capture the two Vanguards in one iridescent frame, we are left with the thought that luxury resides not in clothes, shoes and bags but in a value system that prompts one to grow and glow each day.