Ken Ferns

Fashion is an applied art and art has its own interpretation- is resort wear designer Ken Fern's belief. The Mumbai-based fashion designer likes fun fashion and pradoxically meaningful fashion, presented through showings that have a story, a tale to tell, an inspiration. In a nutshell Ken Ferns designs for a global traveller, the kind who sports a playful, smart look crafted with precision.

Those who've observed fashion designer Ken Fern's ascent in Fashion would have perceived he designs for a select global consumer… the kind who prefer a playful statement look. The Mumbai-based fashion and costume designer undertook fashion design at L.S Raheja and interned under iconic designer Anita Dongre before finally launching his eponymous label in 2010.

However few knew that post- graduation, he taught Fashion for ten years before he launched his resort-wear label and undertook costume designing for iconic television shows Jhalak Dikh La Ja, Bigg Boss and Nach Baliye. “My first job was a lecturer in fashion and I still continue as and when I get time. I have taught fashion for ten long years" he told Fashion Mate. "I began when I was 21, when I started reaching at SNDT then moved on to NIFT for four years there after teaching at almost every fashion school in the country. I had my ambitions clear and with grace of god I’m doing what I always wanted to."

How does Ken Ferns juggle so many diverse hats? Per Explosive Fashion he said: 'I can adapt and deliver to any design-based canvas be it costume, styling or uniforms! The only constant is creativity. I like to create, play and experiment and that's why I have diverse projects that bring out that sunshine in me. I don't like a dull day.' 

Some of Ken Ferns' most popular showings have been at India Beach Fashion Week in Goa. Per Explosive Fashion: 'Showcasing at India Beach Fashion Week means a lot to me because I'm from Goa. It's my lineage of ancestors, holiday destination, place of solace, just being with memories of growing up. Moreover, I design resort wear and beach wear so it's a fabulous platform to showcase my art. Me, my fashion sense is different because I think differently, creatively. It's who I am' says Ken Ferns who designs for a global traveller, the kind who sports a playful, smart look albeit crafted with precision.

“My advice to consumers who want to build a ethical wardrobe — one is always going to wear clothes- but to what degree of fashion- is highly subjective. Every customer always has a need to shop and an occasion or reason to wear. However there are not going to be enough reasons to shop post-pandemic" he told Explosive Fashion. "Practical styles and easy clothes will see more reason to reach a consumers wardrobe. They need to understand that their routines are whereabouts of social appearances and shop accordingly… frivolous shopping will take a backseat as people won't care what's in or what's making it to the charts . It's the basics and the essentials that should be part of each wardrobe although each to its own.”

Fashion and costume designer- stylist and lecturer Ken Ferns can adapt and deliver to any design-based canvas be it costume, styling or uniforms! For him, the only constant is creativity. He likes to create, play and experiment and that's why he has diverse projects that bring out that sunshine in him.

Ken Ferns is one of the few fashion designers who painstakingly designs his own prints with attention to detail and placement. He envisions Fashion as an applied art that has its own interpretation. The designer likes meaningful fashion, clothes that have a story, a tale to tell, an inspiration. Presented in a fun design aesthetic.

Ken Ferns retails resort wear and fashion accessories for men and women and is one of the few designers who painstakingly designs his own prints with attention to detail and placement. For Resort 2019 at India Beach Fashion Week Ken Ferns "tacked fluid silhouettes close to the body and deftly translated Aztec, Zulu, Mayan, Mexican, Indian and Persian tribal art onto them in the form of trippy prints that blended in with bold show-stopping, glamorous silhouettes" per Explosive Fashion. “There was a couture-like finish to sculpted shorts and psychedelic cover-ups you could shrug off to reveal a bikini... fluid dresses and skirts. Menswear did not move away from the holiday mood — swimwear, printed shirts, pants and suits. All accessorised with hats, jewellery, floral headbands fto bring in an element of the theatrical.”

Those who've observed Ken Ferns's ascent have noted he designs for a rarefied customer... the kind who prefers a playful smart look and pays for it. His Spring Summer 2015 collection was in sync with a resort vibe and you couldn't quibble with Fern's construction of sculpted minis and frilled crop tops, corsets and boleros with a print-on-print floral technique in pop summer shades. For evening, he showed body suits with zippered net biker’s jackets.

His early shows were cut from a different cloth too. For Spring Summer 2011 the designer whipped up a winter wonderland on the catwalk Per Explosive fashion: "The girls who gambolled out almost seemed a troupe of ski bunnies working head-to-toe satins, nets, lace and crepes in white. The notable looks were a cutaway lace bodysuit embellished with crystal-studded rosettes worn over a bikini | a dress liberally embellished with large rosettes and worn over a bikini | a short ruffled bolero and lace pants worn over a bikini | a sheer blouse and palazzo worn over a bikini."