Eastern eye

Inside the technicolor universe of Bobo Calcutta—India’s buzziest young designer.

- SAUMYAA VOHRA

Were you expecting a proper studio? With mannequins and all? I m so sorry.

Ayushman Mitra—the fashion designer best known as “Bobo”—says as he sets down steaming tea in cups chosen from his grandparents’ porcelain collection. “I don’t own a mannequin,” he whispers. “I know almost nothing about the fashion world; I have no idea about what’s happening,” he smiles. “I am obsessed with Jacquemus, though,” he says, holding up a cross-body micro bag as proof.

His Salt Lake bungalow in Kolkata is a bit of a scattered mess. The house is his grandfather’s and now doubles as his studio. It is steeped in jamunpurple hues, family photos, and his bouncy puppy Niall’s chew toys. Save for a few neatly folded denim shirts and silk dresses with abstract, sequinned faces on the living room table. Large linen canvases stand in various stages of completion with Bobo’s signature Jamini Roy–esque eyes and vibrant indigos and electric purples. Every room has evidence of that work, from paintings commissioned by veteran designer Sandeep Khosla behind the kitchen dining table to a glistening canvas propped up to dry under a fan near the balcony.