At 94, Mohanjeet Grewal — known simply as Mohanjeet — sits in her eponymous boutique in Paris’s chic Saint Sulpice district, supervising work for an upcoming retrospective honouring her six decades in the world’s fashion capital. Her journey has been long and arduous but one of passion and resilience, with several firsts.
She comes here every day. Today, she points to a pair of suede gloves trimmed with faux fur with gossamer-like embroidery on the fingertips resting on a pedestal in the shop window. “The left glove should be more aligned with the right,” she tells an assistant who swiftly obeys.
The soft-spoken designer, in the Swinging Sixties, invented the mini sari with its hemline several inches above the knee, pencil-thin belts in fluorescent shades based on the Patiala drawstring, desi rock glam — like a biker jacket emblazoned with a Rajput warrior on a horse — and dreamed up frothy capes to drape the most exacting Parisian silhouettes. Her tapestry jackets lined with velvet and Chinese-style coats in Congo-inspired Kuba cloth cemented her reputation as a visionary.
The designer invented the mini sari with its hemline several inches above the knee. (Photo: Mohanjeet’s archives)
Despite some of her designs flopping, Mohanjeet made people sit up and take notice. “The mini sari was too revolutionary,” she sighs, acknowledging that although it featured on top-end Western fashion magazines, it did not translate into huge sales in Europe. “It was in the spirit of the decade––everything was mini––the skirts, the car, the dresses. Maybe it was a bit awkward for women here and certainly out of the question in India. But no regrets,” she said.
Diplomacy to design
Mohanjeet graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the United States of America, and worked with several UN agencies. While working for the UN in New York, she says, “I fell in love and followed someone to Vienna. But it turned out badly, and I had to move.”
A bundle of energy — with clear eyes and a remarkably unlined face — Mohanjeet set up her boutique––Paris’s first Indian textiles shop––after quitting her cushy job at UNESCO, for her creative spirit yearned for something more fulfilling. “I began with khadi because it’s such an honest material,” she says. “I introduced colours, and the French just lapped it up.”
Cameron Diaz in 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 in Mohanjeet for Vogue, iconic film stars like Brigitte Bardot, Catherine Deneuve, Romy Schneider and Jean Seberg were regular clients, as was Italian-French singing legend Dalida, a cult figure in France. Yves Saint Laurent once left her shop with a bright pink, wafer-thin belt. Even Elizabeth Taylor visited, though she didn’t purchase anything.
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“Andy Warhol came with seven acolytes and sat on the floor,” she chuckles. “He was… a bit strange.”
Brigitte Bardot in Mohanjeet. (Photo: Mohanjeet’s archives)
A Punjabi heart beating in Paris
Despite her long years in the French capital, Mohanjeet remains Indian at heart and retains her blue passport and a house and atelier in New Delhi’s sleepy Nizamuddin East. She travels there at least twice every year. “I am just a Punjabi peasant,” she says. “I drink, I work, I love”.
We move to Les Editeurs, an upscale, highbrow Left Bank brasserie where she eats every day. “I don’t cook,” she says. A waiter springs to attention as we enter the book-lined, wood-panelled eatery, exclaiming, “Mohanjeet! How are you today?” and guides us to her table overlooking a pretty little square. We polish off two pitchers of red wine as she recounts tales from an incredibly rich life that has seen both heartbreak and highs.
Mohanjeet in her younger days. (Photo: Mohanjeet’s archives)
Before she leaves for her bijou Haussmanian apartment flanking Paris’s historic Val de Grace military hospital where Victoria Beckham stages her fashion shows, I ask her the secret to a life well lived. “Love,” she says simply. “Not money. Love. And honesty.”
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And who are her greatest loves? “I have two. My country and Paris,” she says, echoing legendary US-French singer and dancer Josephine Baker.
