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The Surendri Store - By Angela Cecilia

Surendri has expanded its presence in the Indian shores with its first flagship store at The Galaxy Mall, Gurgaon. After catering latest trends diffused with quirky prints to clients via online presence, designer Yogesh Chaudhary finally opens the store doors to experience Surendri three-sixty-degree. A quick stroll at the flagship is filled with style at every turn and corner along with high on aesthetic design elements to give you a sense of belonging to the ‘fun’ world of fashion. Along with stocking the latest collection, the store houses jewelry, footwear and other lifestyle products like iPhone covers etc.

The store is Yogesh Chaudhary’s reflective of the true aesthetic of the brand - a juxtaposition of traditional with contemporary. While the store picks up elements from the designer's Haryanvi heritage – the bull rack, the bamboo and other crafts, it’s hard to miss the modern inverted runway with upside-down mannequins that gives you an instant reminder of his existence and experience in the Indian fashion industry while the white accents of the walls become a great canvass for all the art exploding under one roof. 

With the flagship being a dream project that has finally turned into reality, Chaudhary offers a range of Indian festive wear that includes saris, suits, lehengas and other ethnic wear with his own unique and contemporary twists. His Made-To-Measure facility which has been a success on his website, www.surendri.com will also be accessible to the clients upon request. The bridal appointments are now taken at the new store.

In the past, celebrities have endorsed Surendri with their elegance and style. From popular Pacman sari worn by Sonam Kapoor to the ‘Mithu’ black blazer with printed palazzos sported by the graceful Aditi Rao Hydari, the affection towards Surendri by strong, successful and stylish leading ladies of Bollywood is on all-time high.  Come celebrate the new age woman in you at the all new Surendri flagship store. 

SURENDRI - A MULTI SENSORIAL FASHION EXPERIENCE - BY DIVYAK D'SOUZA

The Surendri Woman - by Spardha Malik

There she stands in a faceless crowd, one in a million. She should be invisible like every other person in this world — almost like a pixel in a digital picture. And yet, you can tell that she’s not like the other pixels. She’s the brightest one there ever was. It’s unfair how luminous she is. She’s the missing piece, the lost one, the one without which the puzzle remains glaringly incomplete. The puzzle will have to wait because she hasn’t decided to complete it yet. 

She, of the spirited, the restless, the spontaneous variety — She’s the type of woman that can make or break as she pleases. She knows her abilities almost too well, she’s mastered her craft like a seasoned magician. She, with her rare spark, is like a shiny new coin in a nostalgia shop. She travels, she’s seen places, she sometimes wistfully looks back too, but her past can’t hold her any longer, actually nothing and no one can. 

She lives in the moment, in movement, flying off to places, packing, unpacking, but she never carries any baggage. She takes as easily as she gives. She’s assertive, she knows you’ve got to make noise to be heard. She likes being looked at, looked up to, she quietly commands attention. She, in her riot of colours, her six-yard drapes or body-skimming robes, she’s effortless like a tree in spring. She’s in spring four times a year. She pays close attention to details, to little motifs, semantics, and gets dazzled by new, unheard-of, peculiar objects. 

She likes change; evolution. She dances to the tune of the ticking clock, because she knows the music can stop without a notice. She curls, sways, emotes, turns, stares… and then smiles. She’s looking straight at you. She knows you’ve been watching her. She doesn’t need a spotlight on her to know that she’s the star of a production. She’s known that all along. Watch her closely —because, before you know it — she’ll be off to someplace else. And when she leaves, you will know what it feels like to be a picture with a missing pixel. 

Taking the long way around - by Mohit Rai

I've known Yogesh, to be referred to as Yogi hereon, for what seems like an eternity now. The time when drives back home were the inception point of the empire he is now on the path to build. Was there always a vision? Yes. Was there a sense of direction? No. Yogi is a volatile artist. Someone who can channel a couturier and a classy seamstress in a matter of minutes. For him to have conceptualised and created Surendri was a snap decision and as has been every collection. Yogi had a vision which evolved everyday as the idea became more tangible. The vision was that of creating a brand that can grow into being a one-stop-shop for every woman for every wardrobe and (in the future) lifestyle product requirement. The first collection at LFW was for me the breakthrough that proclaimed Yogi's grand advent into fashion and his obvious vision for change.

He has till date showcased 5 collections and with each his vision, his aesthetic, and his brand have evolved, much to the pleasure of a certain Mr Charles Darwin. Some ideas have been hits and some misses, but his constant struggle with himself to create a product that fits every requirement of his style, global trend, personal colour ideologies, his heritage, an intelligent design, and a real woman, is inspiring.

Sometimes to sit with him and hear a 5 hour monologue on a new kind of fabric is more interesting than an entire season of Sherlock.
Getting calls at 2 am and ideating till 5 in the morning over a random idea that we would never go on to execute is actually fun when its Yogi on the other side of the call.

Today when I'm sitting to pen this down, I do not know what to include and what to skip, what to share and what to conceal. Not only is Surendri a work of art (because art today is found dime a dozen and its hard to separate the fakes from the originals), it is a product of a constant endeavour to create ideas. Surendri for me, is the anti-fit version of a body-conscious stream of ideas. Ideas that are not about creating clothes, or products to sell. Ideas that are generated not to glamourise and blind-fold, but to create an image that one can be comfortable with and cherish.

There hasn't been a day in his journey that Yogi has had a break and nothing has come easy, be it shoes, collections, manufacturing or infrastructure development. And perhaps that's a fair price to pay for ingenuity. Yogi and Surendri are extremely close to my heart and which is why I am the worst choice to write this describing his journey and his ascent today to being where he is. The only thing I can however guarantee is that we will always be taking the long way around....