Edward Mongzar AKA Tsongdili Sangtam

Edward Mongzar AKA Tsongdili Sangtam is a fashion Designer from India, a graduate of Mod’art International, Delhi and Birmingham institute of art and design, England. He worked as a designer for a retail brand based in India and Dubai heading the women’s wear department right after his graduation. He was keen to explore the psychological and anthropological aspect of style and clothes and how it affects the mainstream culture. He returned to India 2 months ago and is currently based in Kolkata working at Sabyasachi Mukherjee as an assistant designer. Acknowledging his passion for work, he was awarded bursary of 1 lakh rupees by Birmingham City University, graduated with an award as the Most Promising student and won an all India inter college design school fashion show at NID Ahmadabad 2012 Eastern Mirror: How did you get into the world of designs? Tell us a bit about yourself and your fashion background. Edward Mongzar: OK! As cliché as it sounds but it was actually my mom. I always thought skirts were beautiful, but I never saw her wearing a skirt as I was growing up. Apparently, she thought it didn’t look good on her. This bothered me, it got me thinking it’s just a piece of cloth and I thought what life is if we can’t manipulate a piece of cloth to make it look good on us? So yeah! I think that was when it all started. Once I was done with 10+2, I applied for 5 fashion colleges in India; fortunately I was accepted by all the institutes. So my dad asked me if I was that good or were the institutes crappy. He knew about NIFT (National Institute of Fashion Technology) and that was the only one I haven’t applied for. It took a lot of convincing but I finally settled for Pearl Academy of Fashion, Jaipur. Then I applied for NIFT the next year, I was accepted with a ranking of 33 all over India. However, I continued my study at Pearl academy of fashion and my dad never asked me that question again. I shifted from Pearl to a new institute in Delhi, as all my freelancing work happened there and it made more sense to be based in Delhi then Jaipur at that moment. I finally graduated from Mod’art international, Delhi in 2012. I started working and left for UK in 2013 to do my Masters in Fashion Design. EM: Which has been the most difficult project in your career? Edward: KIDS! Few years back I made kids wear collection, which was also showcased in Delhi at Tryst Cafe. Designing and making clothes for kids was one of the sweetest and the most calming project I have ever done, however that was short lived. The day of the fashion show proved to be nothing but chaotic. Kids, as we know can be more of a diva than Naomi Campbell and Lindsay Lohan put together. The day went from bad to worse when the make-up artist refuse to do the hair and make-up for the kids because the cosmetics can be harsh on their skin, than came the kids throwing tantrums over what accessories they don’t want to wear, some of them cried for their moms, some wanted to go to the washroom and some even wanted to eat my hands sanitizer. Phew! But yeah, the kid models gave me the best show ever, and most probably my last kid’s show. EM: Do you love working on men’s wear or women’s wear? Edward: Umm!!! It’s hard to say because I enjoy working on both however the way I handle two things are very different. With menswear I am fortunate enough to have an eye for detail so doing mans wear help me utilise my forte i.e. importance of fit and details. While womens wear gives me the liberty to explore and fulfil my creative urges as a designer and an artist. EM: What is the main challenge of building in India? Edward: India is blessed with the best carftmentship and years of honed talent with a market for couture/bridalwhich sells the most. However, I think it’s a different story all together when it comes to Nagaland, we are exposed to a potpourri of culture’s and lifestyle from East to West to South. With online retailers making it easy to access to cheap copycat of latest trends from the runways and sometimes even reasonably priced high street brands like Zara, Asos etc, it can turn the market blind to quality and appreciating someone’s craftsmanship. I think Consumers of fashion goods in India especially Nagaland should be more honest and take their buying trick a notch higher and classier. EM: Where do you go for inspiration? Edward : My inspirations are people. The people I meet and how they make themselves interesting to me, I appreciate individuality, intellectual and someone with a good soul. I connect well with books and nature. It’s weird how abstract things and characters inspire me. I think my biggest inspiration is and will always be kindness and serenity in people, nature and the universe. EM: How much does travel influence your designs? How does that inspiration turn to reality? Edward : A lot. And I travel lot. Sometimes way more than necessary. Travelling makes it possible to interact with new people and how they interact with each other, new cultures and their history. Streets and alleys of new places really intrigued me. I have a twisted way of interpreting my inspirations. I hardly sketch. So usually its a simple process. I decide the colour palette, then the silhouettes and at last may be a sketch or two, and there I go,I have a collection. EM: Is there any place in the world you have not been to yet but would like to visit from a professional perspective? Edward : Venice and New York. I would love to see how the two cultures can mix. I think it will be the perfect balance chaos and calm. It has been my plan for a very quite some time now. I also wanna visit Shillong and Mokokchung and Mon. I think it can bring something interesting to the table. EM: What is the scenario of fashion in Nagaland? Edward: Fast, very fast. Yet I think we need to a step back to relearn/unlearn to see the difference between style, fashion and glamour. It is a heaven for retailers selling fast and cheap fashion. There’s nothing wrong with cheap fashion but to wear a Rs 2000 Zara top and sway it around like its an Hermes top is quite distasteful, in my opinion. Its amazing to see so many good retails brands coming into Nagaland esp, in Dimapur. I think people have become wiser in investing their money in what they wear. That’s a very good sign. For a consumer of fast fashion Nagaland is a paradise, but for designers we still have to break into the market and we can only do so if people taste and demand changes. And yes! Stating the obvious here “Nagas are stylish” EM: What is the best thing about being a designer? Edward : You learn to be less fussy with what you wear. EM: What three good tips would you give young designers? Edward : Well first and the foremost 1. Don’t take fashion too seriously but learn to take your work as a fashion designer seriously. 2. Learn to design for real people, Let people relate to your design. Anyone can make/design a dress but not everyone can convince people to pay a humongous amount of money to wear it. 3. Don’t try to please everyone with your designs. It’s not possible. Like Bill Cosby said “I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure, is trying to please everybody. “ It holds true everywhere.