The Green Room

Epicurean, travel addict, voracious reader, art appreciator, astonishingly talented designer—Wendell Rodricks is a man who wears many hats. From growing up in a ‘glorified Bombay chawl’ crowded with eccentrics, to building homes in Muscat, Istanbul and the French Riviera from quenching childhood hunger pangs with water, to feasting on the canard au sang at La Tour D’Argent in Paris from falling in love with the man with whom he would sign a civil union, to putting his ancestral land of Goa firmly on the global fashion map from being a novice in the hospitality industry, to exhibiting at Pret-a-Porter Salon de Paris and IGEDO, Dusseldorf from designing clothes for his family, to dressing style icons such as Catherine Deneuve, Meg Ryan, Lisa Ray and Freida Pinto—Wendell’s life has been an extraordinarily rich and exciting one. Peppered with wry observations and startling insights, The Green Room is not just the story of one man but also of the evolution of the Indian fashion industry over twenty-five years. It is both a deeply personal journey and a window into the enchanting yet fickle world of the rich and the famous, the beautiful and the neurotic, the gossips and the bores. Candid, irreverent and unfailingly entertaining, this is a memoir of the man who gave India minimalism, resort wear and eco-friendly clothing long before these words became fashionable. It is a sparkling piece of writing that tells the story of a fascinating life lived with unusual courage and flair.