Wendell Rodricks, more than an ace Fashion Designer

He had a fair share of notable firsts too. He was the first Indian,

- Invited to IGEDO garment fair (1995)

- To design police uniforms (1997)

- To open the Dubai Fashion Week (2001)

- Invited to present at the Paris Fashion Week Pret-a-porter salon (2007)

He was a pioneer in resort wear, advocated wearable fashion, and popularized eco-friendly fashion.

Wendell Rodricks was also instrumental in planning the first-ever Lakme India Fashion Week (LFW) in 2000. Sixteen years later, on the same LFW platform, he announced his retirement from the ramp, handing over the reins to his prodigy, Schulen Fernandes.

Rodricks often flirted with Bollywood. Besides designing for the stars he also made cameo appearances in the films�Boom (2003), Fashion (2008), and Shab (2017). He even acted in the television play True West in 2002.

Wendell Rodricks was also a prolific writer. He contributed to journals of travel and art and wrote about food, especially Goan cuisine. He authored his first book, Moda Goa: History and Style, in 2012. In the same year, he released his autobiography, titled The Green Room. In 2017, he released a fictional story titled Poskem: Goans in the Shadows.

In 1993, when Wendell Rodricks shifted to Goa, he began to conceptualize an idea of a museum of Goan fashion. From 1998, he tirelessly researched Goan costumes and clothing and even collected over 800 exhibits for the museum. An original pano bhaju, a Reita Faria bathing suit (which won her the title of Miss World in 1966), an apsara found in a nearby field dating to a Buddhist monastery from the 7th century were all waiting for a grand opening in March 2020. His 450-year-old house in Colvale, named�Casa Dona Maria, was converted into Moda Goa Museum and Research Centre.

Wendell Rodricks, a gay activist who was married to his partner, Jerome Marrel, in a civil ceremony in Paris in 2002, died on 12 February 2020 at his home in Colvale, Goa. The premier Indian fashion designer has left behind a legacy in design as his creative genius lives on.

�What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.�

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