Career
He came into the Indian fashion scene when it was still a nascent industry and left his mark. Born in November 1958 to an affluent family, Rohit had always dreamed of becoming a fashion pioneer. He is a Doon school alumni and had also gone to United Kingdom for higher studies.
In those days, it was actually a brave step to enter fashion, especially when you had such a high profile qualification.
Rohit Khosla is the first Indian fashion designer to launch a haute couture. However, his family had supported him to the hilt.
In his short span of life, Khosla had spearheaded the birth of the Indian Fashion Industry in real form. In 1987, he co-founded Ensemble, India"s popular designer label store in New Delhi, with Tarun and Sal Tahiliani, which started with five labels: Tarun Tahiliani, Rohit Khosla, Neil Bieff, Amaya, Abu Jani & Sandeep Khosla.
Many leading fashion designers of India trained under Rohit Khosla, including Aparna Chandra, Ranna Gill, Sonam Dobal and JJ Valaya.
Although he managed to live his dream, but he was short-lived, as he died in 1994 at the very young age of 36 due to Human Immunodeficiency Virus Aids. In 1998, Rohini Khosla published a book on his life and work, titled, “Rohit Khosla, Vanguard by Rohini Khosla” and in the 2007 India Fashion Week paid a tribute to him, with designers like, Rohit Bal dedicating his collection to him. The annual "India Zee F Awards", presents the Rohit Khosla Award for "Debutante Designer of the Year".
