When fashion meets technology

Q&A: Raghavendra Rathore, Designer

Designer Raghavendra Rathore, known for his clothes, takes a giant leap into a new world, with “lifestyle” software for the iPhone. He offers Abhilasha Ojha a preview of his ideas.

What made you step into the world of technology?
I don’t talk about it much, but I’m a tech geek and I also studied robotics for a year in Hampshire. It was a course on the human interface with electronic gadgets. I think, like in fashion, or chocolates — another product that we bring out — or technology — where we’ve ventured now — everything hinges on a good concept. Once an idea is conceived and you’re convinced of it, all that matters, in technology, for instance, is how one tweaks the software to reach out to more people.

What was your first attempt at entering the tech mart?
Like fashion transcends geographical boundaries, technology is the future in the palm of our hands. Our first attempt is iCarbon, software that can be downloaded from the Apple iTune store on the Web for 99 cents directly to your iPhone. It helps you calculate your individual carbon footprint. It then offers solutions to reduce your environmental impact. If you calculate your iCarbon rating at 150 tonnes, the immediate solution offered is planting trees in Rajasthan, or even in the Amazon basin, wherever it’s required.

What else is on your business agenda?
We will be ready with our second software product by next month. It is a lifestyle software that lets a couple put up their photographs in order to determine how their future children will look.

Are you serious?
I’m dead serious. There’s a lot of mathematical calculation involved, but once you’ve tweaked the software to suit your idea, anything is possible. In the near future we are going to have software that will link people to heritage sites. So, for example, when tourists land in Jodhpur, they’ll immediately have a map on the iPhone marking the forts and palaces of the city. It’s an idea that needs to be — and I’m sure, will be — developed.