Bibhu Mohapatra (born 7 June 1972 in

Rourkela Rourkela () is a planned city located in the northern district Sundargarh of Odisha, India. It is the third-largest Urban Agglomeration in Odisha after Bhubaneswar and Cuttack. It is situated about west of the state capital Bhubaneswar and is ...

Odisha Odisha (), formerly Orissa (List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2011), is a States and union territories of India, state located in East India, Eastern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by ar ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

) is a New York-based

fashion designer Fashion design is the Art (skill), art of applied arts, applying design, aesthetics, clothing construction, and natural beauty to clothing and its Fashion accessory, accessories. It is influenced by diverse cultures and different trends and has va ...

and

costume designer A costume designer is a person who designs costumes for a film, stage production or television show. The role of the costume designer is to create the characters' outfits or costumes and balance the scenes with texture and colour, etc. The costum ...

Early life and education

Mohapatra grew up in Rourkela, Odisha, on the East Coast of India. As a young child, his mother helped him learn how to sew on her machine and he used old textiles, such as old saris, to learn sewing. In 1996 he moved to America and earned a master's degree from

Utah State University Utah State University (USU or Utah State) is a public university, public land grant colleges, land-grant research university with its main campus in Logan, Utah, United States. Founded in 1888 under the Morrill Land-Grant Acts as Utah's federal ...

. In 1999 he moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and enrolled at the

Fashion Institute of Technology The Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) is a public college under the State University of New York, in New York City. It focuses on art, business, design, mass communication, and technology connected to the fashion industry. It was founded in ...

. He worked at the American fashion labels Halson and J. Mendel.

Career

In 2008 Mohapatra resigned from J. Mendel in order to establish his label, Bibhu Mohapatra -Purple Label. Since then, he has presented many collections of luxury women's

ready to wear Ready-to-wear (RTW)also called ''prêt-à-porter'', or off-the-rack or off-the-peg in casual useis the term for garments sold in finished condition in standardized sizes, as distinct from made-to-measure or bespoke clothing tailored to a partic ...

couture Couture may refer to: People * Couture (surname) Places Belgium * Couture-Saint-Germain, a village in the municipality of Lasne, Belgium Canada * Couture crater and Lac Couture, an impact crater and the lake that covers it in Quebec, Canada ...

and

fur A fur is a soft, thick growth of hair that covers the skin of almost all mammals. It consists of a combination of oily guard hair on top and thick underfur beneath. The guard hair keeps moisture from reaching the skin; the underfur acts as an ...

under his name in

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Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

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, Palm Beach,

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. His collections are sold by many boutiques around the world. Mohapatra served as the primary costume designer for the

Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi ( ; ; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto, a small town in the province of Parma, to a family of moderate means, recei ...

opera ''

Aida ''Aida'' (or ''Aïda'', ) is a tragic opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. Set in the Old Kingdom of Egypt, it was commissioned by Cairo's Khedivial Opera House and had its première there on 24 De ...

'' debuted during the 2012 Summer season at the

Glimmerglass Opera The Glimmerglass Festival (formerly known as Glimmerglass Opera) is an American opera company. Founded in 1975 by Peter Macris, the Glimmerglass Festival presents an annual season of operas at the Alice Busch Opera Theater on Otsego Lake nort ...

in Cooperstown, NY. Bibhu was invited to design Costumes for the post covid reopening o
The Washionton National Opera
at Kennedy Center in Washionton DC in 2021 in honor of Supreme Court Justic

First Lady

Michelle Obama Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama ( Robinson; born January 17, 1964) is an American attorney and author who served as the first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017, being married to Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United Stat ...

is Mohapatra's client and he feels she reflects his designs well. On the charitable front, Bibhu has designed several collections of hand woven silk sari to help the traditional hand weavers in his home state of Odisha in India. Bibhu is a co-founder of The India Society. India Society is a New York-based organization set up to assist students of fashion and fine art with tuition and internships at US based Universities. Mohapatra Launched a collection of

diamond Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Diamond is tasteless, odourless, strong, brittle solid, colourless in pure form, a poor conductor of e ...

jewelry in India in 2016 wit
ForeverMark
a division of Debeers. ForeverMark and Mohapatra have been associating since 2016. In 2019 ForeverMark provided an assortment of diamond jewelry, which complimented his Fall-Winter 2019 collection during New York Fashion Week. The first collection is called Artemis by Bibhu Mohapatra.
Artemis by Bibhu Mohapatra
The second Debeers collection was launched in 2019. With his 2019 fall collection, he passed the 10-year mark. Mohapatra lives and works in New York City. His retail store is located on Duane Street in TriBeCa neighbourhood of Manhattan His creations have been featured in many fashion magazines including ''

In Touch Weekly ''In Touch Weekly'' is an American celebrity gossip magazine. The magazine is focused on celebrity news, fashion, beauty, relationships and lifestyle, and is geared towards a younger readership, billing itself as "fast and fun", along with maki ...

''. ''

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'', ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

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Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'', ''

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'', '' Gotham'' and ''

Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** '' Vogue Adria'', a fashion magazine for former Yugoslav countries ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ' ...

''. Mohapatra's Spring 2021 collection was inspired by Amrita Sher-Gil. For the 2021

Met Gala The Met Gala, formally called the Costume Institute Benefit, is the annual haute couture fundraising festival held for the benefit of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute in Manhattan. The Met Gala was and still is popularly rega ...

, Mohapatra dressed Puma creative director, June Ambrose, in a white silk faille gown that was hand embroidered by Indian artisans.

Awards and honors

* On May 27, 2010, Mohapatra received the "Young Innovator Award" from the National Arts Club. * In June 2010, he was elected a member of the

Council of Fashion Designers of America The Council of Fashion Designers of America, Inc. (CFDA), founded in 1962 by publicist Eleanor Lambert, and headquartered in Manhattan, is a not-for-profit trade association comprising a membership of over 450 American fashion and accessor ...

. * In April 2013, SCAD Atlanta presented the exhibition "Surface" by Bibhu Mohapatra, an exhibition encompassing work from many seasons. * In June 2013, Mohapatra was a finalist for the 2014 International Woolmark Prize.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mohapatra, Bibhu 1972 births Living people American fashion designers American costume designers Fashion Institute of Technology alumni Indian fashion designers Utah State University alumni American jewelry designers American people of Indian descent American businesspeople Artists from Odisha LGBTQ fashion designers

Early life and education

Career

Awards and honors

See also

References