A passionate chef, designer and footballer, Abdon Lepcha, the creative head for FILA India and VANS India, has had a colorful journey to where he is today.
Read through the interview as the man himself shines some light on topics such as the generic lifestyle of this industry and how he keeps his creative juices flowing.
What inspired you to become a designer?
I had to choose between becoming a Chef or a Designer. Design had a higher calling as it let me explore creativity not just from a fashion point of view but being able to create and transform ideas to physical products from handcrafting a broom to creating a customised chopper, from sculpting to designing a commercial space, or designing that cool tshirt to creating the fashion line for a brand. It pushed me to never stop imagining, thinking and creating new things or the same thing in a new way.
And, I wanted my weekends to be free to relax and enjoy.
Can you tell us a little about your creative journey until now?
Having graduated from NIFT with 2 design awards, it gave a sense of confidence that I had made the right decision of choosing Design.
I started my career as an asst. designer at a buying house in Delhi in 2000.
Worked there some few years and moved to Paris to work as a designer for a fashion label. It gave me immense exposure to the European women fashion which boosted the ‘designer in me’ but then one weekend as I sipped coffee at Champs-Elysées, it was there that I realised that in order to become a complete designer, I had to deep dive into the belly of apparel manufacturing, supply and gain business knowledge.
I left Paris to work in an export house for 7 years, working and learning the nitty gritty of Apparel manufacturing and understanding customer requirements and practicality during production.
My friends told me that it was a wrong move from Paris to production, but it was an informed decision that I made to make my base stronger.
With a strong base of design & apparel manufacturing, I then worked with PUMA for more than 6 years as a designer. The opportunity to design kits for leading sports-teams in India in Football and Cricket boosted my alter ego. It was then that I saw myself not just as a designer but also as a footballer which led me create a football club winning countless trophies.
I then joined Cravatex Brands as Creative Head for FILA & Vans India and my journey continues.
You’re working with an established brand. How do you develop a solid understanding of what it is and where it’s going?
It’s like an actor prepping for a role, he lives and thinks like the character and lets it consume him until he understands the true nature of the onscreen character of what it is and how it needs to be. That’s when the best of performances are seen.
In the same manner one needs to live, breathe, eat, sleep the brand. If you are not the brand yourself, you will not be able to understand the nature and the character of the brand.
At the same time, understanding of the market and the behaviour of the consumer is important for us to know what the customer wants.
The path that the brand takes is created with a vision to make the consumer fall in love with the brand.
How do you plan your creative concepts, what kind of problems do you come across and how do you resolve them?
The creative concepts are planned through global trend mapping, fashion forecasts through different platforms and understanding the consumer behaviour. Research on fashion trends, colors, street sightings, runways are important.
Today’s short span fashion cycles has made it interesting for designers to keep a close watch on what is happening everyday across the globe.
The team brainstorms on the new season with ideas pouring from all directions. It is a bowl of new ideas that is streamlined to fit the brand DNA.
Once the direction for the season is set with mood boards and storyboards.
The ideas are then translated into designs in the form of sketches, drawings and cads.
Cross referencing your past best / worst sellers is very important cause, what happens globally may not be applicable to your specific brand and country.
Globally a specific colour may be the latest trend for the season, but it may not work at all for the consumer here except a small percentage of the huge Indian market. And that’s a beautiful challenge the Indian market gives us. We are a dynamic country with varied cultures and choices and that creates a fascinating puzzle that allows us to play with different creative formulas all the time.
Being a creative thinker is good but what is dangerous is being lost in those creative thoughts. So, a check needs to be in place to balance creativity and commerciality.
What does innovation mean to you as a designer? How does the chase for innovation inspire FILA’s brand story projects?
For me, Innovation is that special space where an idea is transformed into a meaningful product that can change live itself.
Here at FILA, we strive to bring out the best through creativity and innovation. The team is continuously on the move to create something fascinating for the consumer. Every design, every detail, every element is carefully thought through and each story is written with the understanding of what the consumer wants from the brand.
It is the basics of being a successful brand but being true to itself and not compromising on its ideas and the brand DNA.
According to you, what makes FILA different from other fashion & lifestyle brands/companies?
FILA is a global sportswear brand but that one thing that stands apart from others is that FILA is a ‘Fashion’ sportswear brand. We are high on the fashion quotient. Eg: showcasing at Milan Fashion week.
FILA is a colourful, vibrant and a youthful brand and does not shy away from sporting the logo on your face. It carries the boldness of huge color blocks at the same time stays classic with its iconic looks.
Which has been your favourite FILA collaboration so far?
The FILA collaborations we have done has been quite personal and emotional for me. With VegNonveg, NBNW, Rannvijay, SUPERKICKS, each conversation, every exchange of ideas has been a beautiful experience for me. They are unique in their own ways, hence can’t choose between them. They are all my favourites.
What do you do outside of office to keep your creativity rolling free?
Hahaha..
As I mentioned earlier, if not a designer, I would have become a chef so I continue to experiment with the art of culinary to keep all my 5 senses rolling.
For me, it is a balance of assumption and consumption.
Football has been my passion. Let it rain or shine I’ll hit the ground and Iam waiting for these trying days to get over so that me and my club can get back to winning trophies, but right now I love my daily 5k runs and planning to move to 10k pretty soon.
Weekends are for gardening & horticulture, Murakami with beer and trying to find every possible way to change our home to a plastic free zone.
Can you describe the conditions in the lifestyle industry at large, something one should keep in mind who is aspiring to enter it?
Today, in this amazing fast and competitive fashion / lifestyle industry, finding success means developing a product line that will give you returns and the mantra to being successful is “Don’t try to sell something that you like, sell something that the consumer wants”.
What advice would you give to students who are interested in entering the commercial design industry/students trying to develop their own brands?
Designing your own collection or starting your own business is a way for you to express yourself creatively and make your mark.
- Believe in yourself- If you don’t then no one will. So why would someone buy your design.
- Be honest with yourself- If you feel that it isn’t worth it, don’t try and sell it.
- Don’t hesitate to take that risk- If you don’t, someone else will. Maybe it was the best profitable idea ever and you missed it because you hesitated.
- Be it your own unique personal brand or become a super cool commercial designer, the first and the last thing you should do before taking this step is, leave your ego behind, it carries zero value.
