the goan I network
PANAJI
Like many of its sons and daughters, Wendell Rodricks, who passed away on Wednesday aged 59, had returned back to his native Goa over a quarter of a century ago and made it his base to launch an inning in fashion designing that earned him unparalleled accolades.
Active in the movement for gay rights and many other social causes, Rodricks also earned the prestigious Padma Shri award a few years ago and even before his unfortunate death could be officially announced, social media platforms were flooded with tributes to the fashion czar.
Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant tweeted: “Deeply shocked & saddened by the sudden demise of world-renowned fashion designer & a niz Goenkar Padma Shri Wendell Rodricks. His exemplary work has left an indelible mark in the world
of fashion”.
One of Goa’s and India’s most popular fashion designers, Rodricks had worked in the field of culinary arts in the French capital Paris. A year after he was conferred the Padma Shri in 2014 by the Indian government, he was also accorded the ‘Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts Et Lettres’ by the French government’s Ministry of Culture.
In Goa, when he returned to launch his career in the fashion world way back in the early 1990s, Rodricks worked passionately to retain the State’s heritage and diligently researched its people’s fashion traditions dating back to Portuguese and pre-Portuguese eras.
The State government led by Pratapsing Rane had also commissioned him to design a new uniform for the Goa police personnel which is being adorned to date by policemen working in the traffic cells of the Police department across Goa.
He is also credited with reviving the sari worn by Kunbi women, a tribe indigenous to Goa. He was also actively associated with several social causes and didn’t mince words in taking on authorities who he felt were damaging the cause of Goa.
A project dear to his heart, but as yet incomplete due to his ailment for some months, was the “Moda Goa Museum and Research Centre” dedicated to clothing and fashion of Goa through past years and centuries.
A photograph of the ongoing work of whitewashing the structure of “Moda Goa Museum and Research Centre” was the last post the famous fashion designer had uploaded on Instagram.
Rodricks may have passed on young, but his unparalleled contribution in his chosen profession of fashion designing as well as otherwise, unarguably earns him a place in a long list of worthy sons of Goa.
