Biography

Raghavendra Rathore is an Indian fashion designer. He also works in interior, accessories, products, and jewellery designing.Rathore, one of the leading luxury fashion designers of India, has exclusive patent rights to Bandhgala Jackets and Jodhpuris.Raghavendra is a member of the erstwhile royal family of Jodhpur and he is the cousin of Maharaja Gaj Singh of Jodhpur.He is the great-grandson of the Maharaja of Jodhpur Sri Sardar Singh, who was known to be the most well-dressed monarch of his time and who invented the Jodhpur style Safa (headgear) and popularised Achkan. His grandfather was Major General Maharaj Dhiraj Sir Ajit Singh, for whom the famous Ajit Bhawan Palace was built in 1927, while his grandmother, Sajjan Kanwar, was the queen of Jodhpur and the sister of the Maharaja of Jaipur, Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II. [10]Raghavendra Rathore official website.Rathore realised that he wanted to be a lifestyle designer after taking inspiration from his grandfathers elder brother, the late Maharaja of Jodhpur, Umaid Singh. [11]PressReader.Raghavendra initially studied at a local school in Jodhpur, but when he was four or five, his school was destroyed in the Indo-Pak war of 1971. After this, Rathore was sent to Mayo College, a boarding school in Ajmer. [12]Hindustan Times.When Rathore completed his first year of college in Vermont, US, the royal designers parents asked him to fund his own education. He took up minimal jobs in the US like scraping the paint off old buildings in the neighbourhood, and side projects like fixing and restoring vintage cars. [13]PressReader.After completing his graduation from the Parsons School of Design, Raghavendra worked in Manhattan as an intern under Donna Karan of DKNY. It was then Raghavendra had a chance encounter with the famous designer Oscar de la Renta in an elevator, which eventually landed him a job as a senior assistant at the global fashion house. [14]Mid-Day.Raghu got his big break when Oscar de la Renta hired him to design the house of Pierre Balmain. He worked there for two years, before returning to Jodhpur.In 1994, Raghavendra visited his family in Jodhpur after a decade long stint in the US. Upon his return, Raghus cousin and the Maharaja of Jodhpur, Gaj Singh, asked him to put up a fashion show, which Rathore admitted took him two months. For the show, he sought help from other Indian designers including Tarun Tahiliani, Rohit Bal, and others. [15]The Telegraph.