From Cricket to Bollywood, India jersey designer Aaquib Wani's journey [Exclusive]

Weaving threads is an art, but doing that delicately to produce a jersey donned by the Indian cricket team is a different gravy altogether. While eleven players on the field wear that shirt on a given day, it was one man, who in collaboration with Adidas, designed the latest tricolour-inspired kit for the Men in Blue. We are talking about independent designer Aaquib Wani.

The ‘self-taught’ designer, hailing from Kashmir, the northernmost part of India, isn’t a veteran in the industry, but surely happens to be one for the reckoning. Steadily and fastly rising through the ranks of this art form, Aaquib has fashioned the two most hyped genres of India - Cricket and Bollywood. And not just that, the indigenous designer also made it to the Forbes 30 Under 30 in his category in 2021.

Sounds fun? Well it might be, but to learn the art and being perennially impressive at it isn’t a cakewalk. We caught up exclusively with Aaquib, who elaborated on his journey from designing for B’Town sensation Ranveer Singh and cricketing prodigy Rohit Sharma to the Indian Cricket Team with Adidas. While there were a lot of hurdles in breaching these milestones in many more to come, his candid chat with us was smooth.

Excerpts

Were you self-taught, or you took any formal education to pursue this creative form of art?

I've always been a self-taught, which means I never went to a design college and whatever I know is purely because of something that I wanted to do on my own.

You designed Rohit Sharma's line for the anti-plastic waste campaign. Did you have an interaction with Rohit to get an idea of what exactly is his brain behind supporting this cause. Is he the same person with a laid-back approach we see on TVs?

I remember meeting Rohit at the launch itself. It was very chill and something that people don't know much about is previously we also got to design his shoes for the IPL season. That was fun. So, there was already an interaction between us formally as to what we had done previously in the past with these shoes, and there was obviously this collection that we did.

How much role the colour plays in choosing the jersey? 

When we talk about colour, we always look at a series of colours that could go very well with the new set of kits we designed. So obviously, we're looking at those catalogues to come up with designs that we can possibly put out for the next set of jersey designs.

We know how difficult it is to please every fan. How do you deal with the negative reactions you get on your work?

I have one thing to say to this: I feel design is subjective. Kisi ko kuch pasand aayega, aur kisi ko kuch pasand nahi aayega (Someone will like something and someone will not). We respect that. And to us, it's essentially what the client wants. And if our client is happy, we are happy.

If you could design a jersey for any athlete or team in the world, who would it be and why?

I think of this all the time - and people ask me this a lot. I go back to the '99 World Cup, something was very cool about those jerseys. In fact, I feel like they were the coolest jerseys out there ever that I've ever seen on a cricket field. The coolest thing about that was when you saw all the jerseys, [there was] a set of design [and] you felt it was one language across all jerseys. And those jerseys, essentially, when I read about it, was something one [designing] agency took over all the countries. For me as a designer, that'll be a great thing to collaborate on probably with the ICC, maybe. That you get to design all the cricketing [nations'] jerseys. 

The hoodies and sweaters make the players stand out while they warm up on the field, but is there any difference(s) in a players' kit and coaching staff's kit?

We explore how we [can] prioritise meeting the players’ needs and preferences - from choosing the fabric to constructing the design. [It] includes match-day jersey, training jersey, training hoodie, match day pullovers, both full and sleeveless, travel wear, caps, bibs, training jacket, training pants and shorts, and the Panama hat. [The] coaching staff, essentially during a match, [usually wears] the training jerseys. And during the training, everyone is in the training gear. So, there isn't much of a difference in that sense. But, yeah, the match day jersey only belongs to those 11 players on the field and obviously the extras (or substitutes).

You designed India's Asian Games jersey, where different styles are required for different sports. Are these threads designed keeping every sport in mind separately?

I remember the Hangzhou Asian Games. That was a huge project for us because looking at the Indian contingent, we had about 900 athletes representing the country in China last year. For us to be able to design each of those pieces for all those different kinds of sports, it was quite an extensive exercise.

A question we all want to be answered. Do you have any plans to start your own line of clothing or art?

No, I don't think so. As of now, that's what's in the pipeline. But who knows? It could happen. We are currently doing one-off orders for celebs. I remember last one we did was for Ranveer Singh. So that's obviously something we would want to continue doing is take up these one-off orders. But you never know, there is an ‘Aaquib Wani’ collection dropping anytime soon!

There are many youngsters chasing their passion, choosing unconventional streams. For those who see their future in designing, what is one piece of advice that you'd give to them?

If you're genuine about what you do and you're true to your art, things will follow. Yes, you need to be patient. Nothing's going to happen overnight. Like my dad would always say, ‘Raaton raat building khadi nahi hoti!’ (If you plant a tree ever, it's not going to give you fruits the next day, right?) So anything that you do needs to be... something that you need to have patience, you need to believe in yourself and you need to be true to yourself and most importantly be consistent with what you do, and you will see results that way.

IT HAS HAPPENED. @RanveerOfficial x Aaquib Wani x @adidas !!!!!!!
Since we started doing customisations, I have dreamt about @ranveersingh being our perfect muse! I got the opportunity to Design the jacket he is wearing.
Overwhelmed. Unreal. pic.twitter.com/4dFnVZPUbo

— Aaquib Wani (@Waaquib) November 4, 2022