INSIDE INDIA'S GLOBAL ATELIER

With Fergie, Beyoncé and Lady Gaga in their portfolio, Falguni Shane Peacock turned feathers and crystals into a global fashion language — and never looked back

- BY ANANYA SHANKAR

Long before Indian fashion went global — even before international red carpets were flooded with homegrown names and before luxury houses began eyeing India’s swelling creative class — one Mumbai-bred label had already cracked Hollywood’s code.

The moment they didn’t know they'd been waiting for came quietly at 6:30 a.m. on an ordinary morning in 2010, when designer Falguni Peacock picked up a call from a Los Angeles stylist. “We'd like you to design options for Fergie,” the voice on the other end said. “She’s performing at the FIFA World Cup. We need them in South Africa in seven days.”

Falguni didn’t blink. “Before you wake up, you will have the sketches.” Two days later, four handcrafted performance looks were ready — feathers, crystals, movement, drama — all unmistakeably from label Falguni Shane Peacock. Fergie wore every one of them. The designers didn’t get the outfits back (“These are pieces they keep,” Falguni says), but they gained something far more valuable: certainty.

What followed was a head-spinning run: Beyoncé’s music videos, photoshoots with Rihanna, Lady Gaga’s avant-garde appearances — over 200 stars dressed between 2010 and 2015 alone, and nearly 50 concerts outfitted in their maximalist, blingy aesthetic.

And the most unforgettable moment of all? A night in New York, back in 2012, when Paris Hilton whisked them into Lady Gaga’s perfume launch. The singer, encased in a giant egg, stretched out her hand as fashion royalty queued to greet her. “We wondered if we should do it too,” Shane Peacock recalls. “Paris said — ‘No, you shouldn’t.’ And guess who was also in line? Marc Jacobs.”

But that’s the thing about Falguni Shane Peacock — the couple has always been both inside the room and outside the rulebook, making news as lately as last month when RPSG Ventures acquired a 40 per cent stake in their label at an enterprise value of ₹455.17 crore.

Hollywood Came Calling