In their 40's, most men are well-settled and that reflects in their clothes. Like Navin Ansal's suits and sherwanis, they are classically tailored, and the look is very refined.

At 49, Navin Ansal, Delhi-based businessman, one-half of Casa Paradox, the reputed design and interior business that straddles cities like Mumbai, Delhi, and soon Bangalore and Dubai, is pretty well preserved.
Salt-and-pepper hair, a fit body, a lifestyle that includes polo sessions, racing, bike riding, and a style that's rather old world and befits someone who grew up in a liberal family in the 1960s: well-tailored suits, black sherwanis, well-fitted shirts and boots.
A regular on the Delhi social circuit, and occasionally Mumbai, Ansal comes from a landed family in Ferozpur, Punjab. He studied at the Lawrence School in Sanawar, Himachal Pradesh, the one that superstar Amitabh Bachchan went to. "Boarding school made me more independent and exposed me to an alternate way of thinking. Also, it was a school for both boys and girls, so we learnt how to treat women like human beings."
He spent his winters in Delhi, where he learnt how to ride horses from the President's Bodyguard, the horse cavalry regiment, which boasts of some of the best riders in the country. Sometimes he went back home to Ferozpur. "It was a very feudal society," he recalls. "My father and his friends went for shikaars or game shooting when it was not banned and we kids would sometimes accompany them. Evenings were spent in the local club. We would often go to Delhi to watch polo matches during the season."
Though he has never played the sport, Ansal is a regular at matches and rides almost every Sunday. That's if he isn't exploring the jungles around Delhi on his classic Royal Enfield Bullet, or racing down empty roads close to his farmhouse. "I remember taking the old Enfield that my brother Abhimanyu owned for long rides in Ferozpur." Now he owns a 500 cc Bullet and an Audi TT. His first sports car, at 19, was a Karmann Ghia, the two-seater marketed by Volkswagen and designed by Italian firm, Ghia.
And if he isn't doing any riding or driving, he is playing badminton at the indoor court in Siri Fort. "Hardcore stuff that is as strenuous as squash,"
It is a good life, has always been, Ansal says. "I work hard for a living now. I remember the time when I was in no rush to do anything, " says Ansal who went to Hindu college in Delhi, graduated in history, and then headed back to Ferozpur in 1977 to tend to his farms and take care of his property. "We still have farms that border Pakistan. It is a wild country, like the American wild west."
In 1981 he married Nikki, daughter of Raja Bahadur Singh of Patiala and would have settled to a peaceful life, except that he was stiff bored. "It was a rural lifestyle while I was brought up in an urban environment. There were hardly any recreation opportunities. You farmed, met other land owners in the evening…I felt like a misfit. It didn't help that my marriage wasn't working too well." In 1991, he headed back to Delhi and tried his hand at different businesses before setting up a design and handcrafted furniture company with Raseel Gujral, daughter of famous sculptor, Satish Gujral, who is now his wife.
"She was already divorced and I was en route to getting one. We were two right people who met at the right time." They started out by designing a 30-acre farm for Amsterdam-based Ratan Chaddha, one of the founders of clothing chain Mexx. Since then Casa Paradox has designed elaborate farmhouses for people like Goenkas and Jindals.
Although he left Ferozpur behind, Ansal claims that the time he spent there on the farm, living close to the family, had its own charms. "From my style to the way I think, I have been influenced by my dad and my older brother. Both were very stylish men. Dad had a very flamboyant sense of style. He was bohemian in his dressing. He used to wear colourful jackets and bell bottoms in his younger days. He was well travelled and always brought back magazines like Esquire, which even then ran photographs of the latest fashion trends. As a teenager, I copied many of them."
Over the years, Ansal has developed his own style. "For me, it is a process of continuous change and I could be dressing differently tomorrow." Sometimes, he even gets his wife to style him because "there are small things she adds, like asking me to wear a different colour, which makes all the difference."
Even today he gets his trousers, achkans and sherwanis tailored from a man who comes home for fittings, "since readymade ones don't fit too well." Very much a brand man, Ansal loves to pick up from big names like Giorgio Armani (suits, jackets and jeans), Gucci (eyewear and accessories like bags), Canalli (anything he likes), Cue, Rohit Gandhi and Rahul Khanna's label (shirts), as well as TAG and Cartier (watches).
Fond of subtle colours, you will find powder blue, pink and green suits and jackets in his wardrobe. "I recently picked up two beautiful blue and green jackets from Canalli," he says. His suits are often pinstriped, or double breasted, "almost exaggerated and over-the-top. I team that up with plain shirts." Ansal almost never wears ties, but loves high collared shirts, which allow the jacket to be visible.
And then there are the shoes he splurges on, even handcrafted ones, brought from Milan. "I have 30 pairs of shoes, some from British designer Paul Smith, some handmade ones from Christian Dior. I like my shoes to be bit overstated, especially in their shapes, like ones with pointed toes or with slight embellishment on them."
Like a lot of Delhiites, Ansal owns a different wardrobe for summers and winters. "In summers, it is white kurta pyjama and fitted shirts or tees worn with trousers," he says. In winters, especially for formal occasions, he often wears sherwanis, particularly a traditional black one with emerald buttons, worn with a white churidaar that happens to be his favourite. Or it could be light wool jackets.
"When I was younger, I probably wore more colour," he says. "Even now, there is colour, but it is a lot muted. I would probably wear a flamboyant jacket, like this lovely crinkled blue Armani one with gold embossing on it, but I would team it with a plain shirt."

OFFICE	EVENING	WEEKEND
Grey pinstripe suit Rs 45 400, tie Rs 4000, shirt Rs 8300 all by Boss Hugo Boss. Black leather formal shoes Rs 1590 by Metro. Black leather belt Rs 795 by Marco Ricci. Louis Vuitton Abbesses Messenger bag with signature monogram Rs 54 500.	Wool viscose evening suit Rs 25000 and jacquard evening shirt Rs 4500 by Manzoni. Black leather shoes Rs 7990 by Da Vinci at Metro. Black belt with monogram buckle Rs 3200 by Gant. Polaroid sunglasses Rs 7323.	Tan cargoes Rs 1395 by Wills Lifestyle. Burnt orange knit sweater Rs 4595 By Tommy Hilfiger. Brown sneakers Rs 1790 by Reebok. Dark blue water proof over coat Rs 9950 by Marks & Spencer.

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