LFW Gen Next Designers on their design inspiration 

Lakmé  Fashion Week’s 26th batch of Gen Next designers talk fashion, travel and how design connects the two worlds, ahead of their fashion week debut
image024
image024

In the recent past, Lakmé Fashion Week has cultivated quite the reputation in the global fashionscape as a vanguard event for inclusivity. From representing the LGBTQ+ communities and plus-sized models to bringing ancient textile crafts into the modern, fashion week has proved itself to be an entry point to discuss form and content in the industry. While Indian aesthetics continue to be inevitably imbibed into the collections of the latest batch of Lakmé’s Gen Next designers, this season, the story that is integral to each of their lines is a narrative of how travel, varied cultural and world experiences form unique points of view that reflect a global village interconnected through design. Consider Anurag Gupta’s khadi line that evokes the work of Dutch-painter MC Esche or reactive prints and zardozi embroidery from Jajaabor that come inspired by the designer’s travels to the Czech Republic, Gen Next’s Autumn/Winter collections offer a perspective that looks out at the world in all directions. 

Jajaabor by Kanika Sachdev
Jajaabor’s The Artful Lodger is a collection that is designed from the desire to travel and create fashion that is suitable on the go. Inspired by various homestay stories in Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic and Eglisstadir in North Iceland, the central motifs feature silhouettes of rows of houses and hand-drawn maps. “We don’t believe in fashion terms like ethnic, western, indo-western. We look to dissolve any such divisive boundaries and merge inspirations and cultures from all around the world to create fashion,” says the New-Delhi based designer whose collection of bomber jackets, trench coats, kimono robes, deconstructed kurtas and shift dresses are made by reactive printing on khadi, silk, organza and cotton cambrics. 

Studio Swgt by Shweta Gupta
Experimenting with colour and the composition of natural yarn for its distinct hand-textured look, Shweta Gupta’s A/W collection mimics the cross-section of mountain rocks. “Having spent most of my childhood surrounded by the hills at Almora, they have formed an intrinsic source of my inspiration,” says the 32-year-old. Drawing from her hiking and travel stories through the Himalayas, the founder of the label Studio Swgt says that the dominant shades of grey in her collection of dresses, jackets and separates correspond to the colour of slate, dark mountain soil and silt.  
 

Label Anurag Gupta by Anurag Gupta
Trained by Manish Arora, Varun Bahl and Sulakshana Monga, designer Anurag Gupta offers a blend of artist MC Escher’s visual sensibilities and Indian craftsmanship in his A/W collection. Combining a monotonous colour tone by using a palette of grey, luminous blue and white, and an exploration of Escher’s love for symmetry by merging motifs like birds, fish, chessboards with other checks and lines, the collection plays on illusions created by patterns and colours. Inclined towards the crease recovery and drapability of hand spun fabric, the 28-year-old’s block printed and zardozi embroidered line makes extensive use of khadi denim and khadi linen.

Yavi by Yadvi Gupta
Yavi is motivated by impressionism. Just like works of art, the New-Delhi-based label’s identity lies in its hand-painted jackets where no two motifs are the same. Exploring the possibility of how garments possess the potential to tell a story, Yadvi Gupta says the collection which uses khadi, chanderi and silk blends is an embodiment of her fascination with the 19th Century art movement and dates back to her visit to Paris in 2010. “The personality of the label and the dreamy characteristics of the line is inspired by fin-de-siècle and the visual culture of Paris,” shares the 28-year-old. Presenting a line featuring hand, block, screen, Maya and digital prints the collection uses simple anti-fit silhouettes placing greater emphasis on surface design and colour. 
 

Aur by Ajay Kumar Singh 
With illustration inspired prints and embroideries, Ajay Kumar Singh’s label, Aur celebrates the unique abilities of intellectually-challenged children. Sporting long dresses and jackets, the collection is driven by surface design and uses patchwork, kantha and screen printing techniques. Created over periods of extensive engagement with children from an NGO in New Delhi, the costume designer for Yash Raj tells us, “It was during one of these visits that I decided to use their motifs and merge it with my skill and aesthetics.” Prioritising wearability, the collection that involves the use of pastels and a mix of darker colours like indigo and brown, is completely in khadi. 
 

Related Stories

No stories found.
Indulgexpress
www.indulgexpress.com