Natasha Raj: Indian Heritage, L.A. Style
Natasha Raj’s self-named clothing line is a varied jumble of silk chiffon dresses, printedcotton skirts and mod-graphic T-shirts, yet the influence of Raj’s childhood home of India is a unifying thread throughout.
Raj travels to India at least twice a year to manufacture her clothing line and gain inspiration from the handiwork of local artisans. The hand techniques Raj employs have an earnestness that is different from the Indianinspired garb littered with sequins and embroidery of seasons past.
Maritza Arrua, buyer for The Kids Are Alright in Los Angeles’ Echo Park district, said she usually doesn’t order pieces that are “very ethnic looking” but was excited to buy Raj’s caftan with a batik-like print.
“I think it’s more that her line is very feminine,” Arrua said. “We love feminine pieces that feel a little bit modern, but there’s also a vintage feel to her cuts.”
Other standout pieces include a silk chiffon wrap top that is embellished with the handembroidery stitch style kantha, from the east of India, and sprinkled with shells and sequins. Simple gathered-waist cotton-voile skirts feature an irregular hand-blocked print.
Raj first came to the United States from India to study fashion design at the Otis College of Art + Design. Natasha Raj is a relaunch of Raj’s previous clothing line, Natasha Martinez, which she started in 1998 when she was taking time off school to live in New York. Raj eventually put Natasha Martinez on hold and returned to Los Angeles to finish her education at Otis.
“It wasn’t really to get a job,” said Raj about returning to Otis, since she had already sold the Natasha Martinez line to boutiques such as Curve on Robertson Boulevard in Los Angeles and Planet Blue in Malibu, Calif. “It was just for me.”
Now her traveling is limited to her two homes and locales of inspiration— Los Angeles and Chennai, India.
Raj said living in Los Angeles has helped her grow as a designer. “As far as the art, experimenting and blossoming as seeing what I’d like to be doing, it’s L.A. for sure. People [in Los Angeles] are open to something that’s a nice, new, fresh idea, not just something that looks well done.”
Raj captures a casual style with her T-shirt line, Chapora St., which is named after a neighborhood in Goa, India, that the designer describes as full of “rockers, alcoholics and psychedelics.” Despite the psychedelic name, the actual designs of the T-shirts are inspired by architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the idea of placing seams along the curvature of the body.
Wholesale price points are $15 to $22 for a Chapora St. T-shirt, $50 for a Natasha Raj silk dress and $125 for an embellished chiffon piece. For more information, call Blaine Ashley at (808) 754-0079. —Rhea Cortado
