Ritu Kumar Birthday: Here’s 8 lesser-known facts about the iconic Indian fashion designer

Ritu Kumar is an 80-year-old leading Indian fashion designer. Recently, she has unveiled a new store at The Dhan Mill Compound in New Delhi. She hails from Amritsar, Punjab. She is one of the All-India artisans and craftworkers welfare association's founding members (AIACA).

She has completed her schooling from Loreto Convent school, Shimla. Following this she studied at Lady Irwin College. Later on, she got a scholarship at Briarcliff College in New York, where she studied Art History. On returning to India, she then studied museology at the Asutosh Museum of Indian Art. She married to her college friend Shashi Kumar. The couple had two sons. Her son, Ashvin Kumar, is an Oscar nominated director and Amrish Kumar is the CEO of Ritu Kumar’s clothing line. 

Her career began with fashion business in Kolkata, using two small tables and hand-block printing techniques. In 2013, Ritu Kumar was given the Padma Shri award by the Government of India. She has also won the Achievement Award in 2012 at L’oreal Paris Femina Women’s Awards. Ritu currently owns three fashion brands: Ritu Kumar Ri and Label Ritu Kumar. 

Her clothes have been worn by celebrities such as Princess Diana, Priyanka Chopra, Lara Dutta, Deepika Padukone, Madhuri Dixit Nene, Madhur Jaffrey, Kalki Koechlin, Dia Mirza, Soha Ali Khan and Jemima Goldsmith

Here’s a list of Ritu Kumar’s lesser-known facts:

• ·       The boutique culture was first introduced to India by Ritu Kumar and she began operating her boutique under the Ritu name.
• ·       Ritu is also known as Couture Rani.
• ·       Ritu has published the book Costumes and Textiles of Royal India in October 1999, which is based on the background of Indian textile and art history.
• ·       The wedding attire for Bollywood diva Kareena Kapoor Khan was created by Kumar. Along with these Bollywood celebrities she has also created traditional attire for Aishwarya Rai Bachan Anushka Sharma Priyanka Chopra and Vidya Balan.
• ·       Ritu creates attire for competitors in Indian beauty pageants like Miss Universe Miss Asia Pacific and Miss India.
• ·       The Mughal era's thriving art form zardozi has been credited with being revived by Kumar. Ritu bridal line largely consists of Zari zardozi and other precious-metal-based embroidery techniques.
• ·       She owns about 35 high-end retail locations in more than 14 Indian cities.
• ·       The domain ritukumar.com attracted 1,658,109 users in the year 2019.