Rina Dhaka: The 90s was the era when there was no rulebook to be followed, we thought we were the ‘it’ people of the city

The 90s was the time for bubble skirts, bodycon dresses, and a lot of pop influence in fashion. I remember Hauz Khas Village being a fashion hub back then and most fashion shows used to be in Mumbai. There was no concept of solo shows, there were group shows. Solo shows started surfacing in Delhi’s fashion scene in the late 90s. I had my first solo show in the year 1998. Fashion then used to be a very close knit circle, almost everyone knew everyone and we as youngsters thought that we were the coolest people in this city. It was so important for us to be seen everywhere, so even if there was a small gathering we had to be there. Thankfully, that was not the time we tracked ETA through Google maps, travelling within the city was much easier with less crowded streets, so we managed to meet a lot of people, be at a lot of places. We had to attend most parties in the city- there were very few at places like Ghungroo. Being on Page 3 was a very big deal for us and travelling to London and Paris was the primary goal. All these things were considered an achievement back then, though today one may not value these.

Personally, I think the 90s was the best time of my life. There was no rulebook to be followed, I did what I thought was cool. There were no machines back then, so every design that we would do was a time-consuming process, but everything was done by hands. Making the collection used to take so many months, at times a year and then once we would get a chance to do a show and that was a big occasion. My biggest show was in the 90s, when I was 23 years old and I was doing a show with big names like Suneet Varma, Geetanjali Kashyap.