‘I’m just a Punjabi peasant,’ says Mohanjeet, whose creations adorned Jane Fonda, Brigitte Bardot, Cameron Diaz and YSL

The soft-spoken designer, successful the Swinging Sixties, invented the mini sari with its hemline respective inches supra the knee, pencil-thin belts successful fluorescent shades based connected the Patiala drawstring, desi stone glam — similar a biker overgarment emblazoned with a Rajput warrior connected a equine — and dreamed up frothy capes to drape the astir exacting Parisian silhouettes. Her tapestry jackets lined with velvet and Chinese-style coats successful Congo-inspired Kuba cloth cemented her estimation arsenic a visionary.

The decorator invented the mini sari with its hemline respective inches supra the knee. (Photo: Mohanjeet’s archives)

Despite immoderate of her designs flopping, Mohanjeet made radical beryllium up and instrumentality notice. “The mini sari was excessively revolutionary,” she sighs, acknowledging that though it featured connected top-end Western manner magazines, it did not construe into immense income successful Europe. “It was successful the tone of the decade––everything was mini––the skirts, the car, the dresses. Maybe it was a spot awkward for women present and surely retired of the question successful India. But nary regrets,” she said.

Diplomacy to design

Mohanjeet graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the United States of America, and worked with respective UN agencies. While moving for the UN successful New York, she says, “I fell successful emotion and followed idiosyncratic to Vienna. But it turned retired badly, and I had to move.”

A bundle of vigor — with wide eyes and a remarkably unlined look — Mohanjeet acceptable up her boutique––Paris’s archetypal Indian textiles shop––after quitting her cushy occupation astatine UNESCO, for her originative tone yearned for thing much fulfilling. “I began with khadi due to the fact that it’s specified an honorable material,” she says. “I introduced colours, and the French conscionable lapped it up.”

Cameron Diaz successful an outfit designed by Mohanjeet. (Photo: Mohanjeet’s archives)

Iconic designs, iconic clients

Fame knocked. Her boutique soon became a magnet for the elite. Jane Fonda posed successful Mohanjeet for Vogue, iconic movie stars similar Brigitte Bardot, Catherine Deneuve, Romy Schneider and Jean Seberg were regular clients, arsenic was Italian-French singing fable Dalida, a cult fig successful France. Yves Saint Laurent erstwhile near her store with a agleam pink, wafer-thin belt. Even Elizabeth Taylor visited, though she didn’t acquisition anything.

“Andy Warhol came with 7 acolytes and sat connected the floor,” she chuckles. “He was… a spot strange.”

Brigitte Bardot successful Mohanjeet. (Photo: Mohanjeet’s archives)

A Punjabi bosom beating successful Paris

Despite her agelong years successful the French capital, Mohanjeet remains Indian astatine bosom and retains her bluish passport and a location and atelier successful New Delhi’s sleepy Nizamuddin East. She travels determination astatine slightest doubly each year. “I americium conscionable a Punjabi peasant,” she says. “I drink, I work, I love”.

We determination to Les Editeurs, an upscale, highbrow Left Bank brasserie wherever she eats each day. “I don’t cook,” she says. A waiter springs to attraction arsenic we participate the book-lined, wood-panelled eatery, exclaiming, “Mohanjeet! How are you today?” and guides america to her array overlooking a beauteous small square. We polish disconnected 2 pitchers of red wine arsenic she recounts tales from an incredibly affluent beingness that has seen some heartbreak and highs.

Mohanjeet successful her younger days. (Photo: Mohanjeet’s archives)

Before she leaves for her bijou Haussmanian flat flanking Paris’s historical Val de Grace subject infirmary wherever Victoria Beckham stages her manner shows, I inquire her the secret to a beingness good lived. “Love,” she says simply. “Not money. Love. And honesty.”

And who are her top loves? “I person two. My state and Paris,” she says, echoing legendary US-French vocalist and dancer Josephine Baker.