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" These days, fashion competitions are so plentiful\u2014and consuming of time and money\u2014that young designers are forced to pick and choose which contests they even enter. But this year, there was one no-brainer in the mix: the LVMH Prize. Out of 1,221 online applicants, 30 were invited to Paris in February to meet a judging panel that included Dior&amp;#039;s Raf Simons, Louis Vuitton&amp;#039;s Nicolas Ghesqui\u00E8re, and Karl Lagerfeld, who all happen to work for the luxury conglomerate in one way or another.  Winner Thomas Tait and runner-up Hood by Air have received plenty of well-deserved attention in the past, but there was also a newcomer who managed to turn heads: Miuniku, the Mumbai-based label designed by sisters Nikita and Tina Sutradhar. As runners-up, the duo\u2014who both attended the London College of Fashion \u2014 received 100,000 euros and a year of mentorship from LVMH execs.  Related: Meet the Winners of LVMH&amp;#039;s Young Fashion Designers Prize  The sisters&amp;#039; fall collection was inspired by common household items, like bathrobes and rubber gloves. Maximal in color but minimalist in silhouette, the line will appeal to fans of C\u00E9line and J.W. Anderson. Now, with a little cash in their bank account and a spring collection to design, ELLE.com dialed up the Sutradhars in Mumbai to see what&amp;#039;s next. Related: The Ultimate Editor&amp;#039;s Guide to London Fashion Week Congratulations on your award! How are you feeling?  Tina: Amazing, because we are such a young brand and for us at this stage to win such a prize is a real boost. We feel like we have a lot of hope for the future now that we&amp;#039;ve got so much support from the industry. Now we know people! You&amp;#039;re based in Mumbai, where you were raised. When did your interest in fashion begin to develop? Tina: When we were growing up, Mumbai was on the brink of globalization. And it&amp;#039;s still happening. We grew up watching American cartoons, like The Jetsons and Flintstones and Power Rangers and Captain Planet and things like that, so we had a mixed culture. And we had an interest in pop music from a very young age. Our father is a musician: he used to travel abroad and bring us kilts from London and clothes from the U.S. What kind of musician is he?  Tina: He was lead guitarist for Bollywood bands.  Tina, at 25, you&amp;#039;re two years older than Nikita. When did you decide to go to London College of Fashion, and when did Nikita decide to join you? Tina: After tenth grade, I studied commerce and math, and I went on to study business. And then after that I did a short course in fashion marketing. I soon realized that I didn&amp;#039;t see myself doing an office job\u2014I don&amp;#039;t have the personality. I really wanted to make something with my hands, so then I decided to apply for a design course. Meanwhile, Nikita was studying psychology, but she went on to do a two-year design degree at Raffles in Mumbai. Then she applied to LCF, and so did I.  What was London like?  Nikita: There were so many museums and so many places to visit and take inspiration from. London is very multicultural, so you learn a lot from the streets. What are some of your specific inspirations in terms of music or art?  Nikita: Ellsworth Kelly. He&amp;#039;s quite minimal. His thing is that any color will [work] with any other color. But in general, we just keep our eyes open, keep our minds open, and see what we can do with our surroundings.  What is the Indian fashion scene like? Have they embraced you?  Nikita: We just moved back to Mumbai from London nine months ago, so we&amp;#039;re not a real part of the scene. Usually in India, fashion is ruled by the people who do bridalwear. There&amp;#039;s a huge market for it. Tina: We are Indian, and that will never change. But our outlook has always been international. Ever since we were [young kids], we knew we wanted to do something for the global market. Let&amp;#039;s talk about the Fall 2014 collection. Tina: It was inspired by mundane household chores, everything from washing the dishes to doing the laundry. We actually studied the process of doing these household chores, like putting clothes out to dry on the clothesline. We also used colors that come from household products, like detergent boxes. While it&amp;#039;s a little off-kilter, the collection is also very wearable\u2014a difficult balance to achieve. What was the feedback from the LVMH committee? Tina: They were taken aback by the color. And people really seemed to like the humor. It&amp;#039;s humorous, but still chic. There are clean lines and graphic details. Have you seen the dress with arms on it? Karl Lagerfeld and Marc Jacobs really seemed to like that piece. Did any of them say anything to you that you&amp;#039;ll never forget? Tina: When Nicolas Ghesiqui\u00E8re came into our store during the semi-finals, he went through our collection and took a good amount of time to look through it and asked us the questions that everyone was asking. But then, before leaving, he was like, &amp;#039;No sari for Indian woman, huh?&amp;#039; Would love to see your take on the sari. You&amp;#039;ve mentioned that you want to have a studio in London so that you can work between there and Mumbai. Now that you have a little cash, what&amp;#039;s the plan?  Nikita: First, we&amp;#039;d like to just concentrate on our next collection, and then present it, hopefully in Paris. And then we hope to shift our base to London, and eventually we want to show at London Fashion Week. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/fashion/a12743/designers-nikita-tina-sutradhar-interview/>