For Dhruv Kapoor, fashion is about noticing what is already here. At Milan Fashion Week, his Spring Summer ’27 collection, Presence, turns inward, exploring how time leaves its mark on cloth, colour, texture and the body. Faded denim, crumpled checks, wrinkled leather and softened tailoring give familiar forms a lived-in quality, while sharp proportions meet fluid drapes. Alongside the collection, he introduces PUMA X RCB X Dhruv Kapoor. This limited capsule reworks existing codes through Dhruv Kapoor’s design language, alongside a collaboration with Paloceras, the Helsinki-based eyewear house known for its sculptural frames. Returning to the Milan runway after last season’s Transit, Dhruv speaks to Indulge about clarity, continuity and the space between opposing ideas.
Making Time Visible Through Fashion
What does Presence mean to you, and when did this idea begin to take shape for the collection?
Presence is really about awareness—being conscious of where you are, what surrounds you and what you actually desire before moving towards the next thing. It came quite naturally after the previous season, which explored transit and the rituals that fill periods of waiting. I became interested in what happens when that movement settles and you begin to notice what is already there. It isn’t about stopping or sitting still, but about being aware enough to choose your direction rather than constantly moving towards what comes next.
The collection looks at what is already here and how time changes it. How does this idea translate into clothing for you?
A lot of it came through observing very ordinary transformations—sunlight fading colour, surfaces wearing away, things growing and decaying, or a garment changing through the act of wearing it. We translated those observations through sun-faded colours, chipped florals, crumpled checks, pebbled surfaces and pieces that appear softened or altered with time. Even the silhouettes shift between oversized and precise, soft and structured. The idea was to make time visible without illustrating it too literally.
Is Presence also a reflection of where you are personally and creatively at this point in your journey?
Today, I am more interested in understanding why something needs to exist and giving an idea enough space to develop fully. Presence probably comes from that shift. There is still experimentation, but there is more clarity around what belongs to the brand and what doesn’t
Definitely. I think I am much more resolved today, both personally and creatively. Earlier there was an urge to constantly search for something new or push an idea simply to see where it could go. Today, I am more interested in understanding why something needs to exist and giving an idea enough space to develop fully. Presence probably comes from that shift. There is still experimentation, but there is more clarity around what belongs to the brand and what doesn’t.
What does being present mean to you in a fashion landscape that is constantly moving towards what is next?
Fashion is almost entirely structured around what comes next— the next season, the next collection, the next product, the next image. Presence isn’t about rejecting that system, because we are part of it. It is about not allowing its pace to determine your own desires. For me, being present is simply about creating enough awareness to know why you are moving towards something before you move towards it.
You have softened, faded and altered familiar garments. What drew you to the idea of clothes that look as though they have lived a life?
Clothes become more personal through use. They crease around the body, colours change, surfaces soften and eventually the garment carries traces of the person wearing it. There is something very beautiful about that. We brought foundational garments from previous seasons back into this collection, but they appear changed—softened, faded or altered. It allowed us to look at continuity rather than constantly replacing one idea with another.
What role does texture play in expressing the idea of time in Presence?
Texture became one of the most direct ways of showing transformation. A perfectly flat surface feels immediate, while a crease, crack, fade or irregularity suggests that something has happened to it. Across the collection, surfaces appear crumpled, pebbled, faded, embroidered or distressed. They create a sense that the clothes have existed before the moment in which you are seeing them.
We approached the materials almost as if they were already in use. Instead of beginning with the idea of a perfect surface, we looked at what could happen to it over time—how it might crease, fade, soften or break down
From crumpled checks and wrinkled leather to faded denim and tattered appliqué, many materials appear transformed. What was the process behind reworking them?
We approached the materials almost as if they were already in use. Instead of beginning with the idea of a perfect surface, we looked at what could happen to it over time—how it might crease, fade, soften or break down. Some of those effects came through treatments and washes, while others were built directly into the textile through embroidery, appliqué or construction. The aim wasn’t to make everything look distressed, but to give each surface a sense of time having passed through it.
You have combined materials such as silk and jersey, lace and bonded tailoring. What interests you about bringing contrasting materials together?
The brand has always existed between polar ideas, and materials are one of the most immediate ways of expressing that. I like putting something delicate against something technical, or something fluid against something highly structured. It changes the way you perceive both materials. Silk feels different next to jersey, just as lace behaves differently when placed against bonded tailoring. I am interested in that point where neither material completely dominates the other and a new balance emerges.
How has your approach to silhouette evolved since your earlier collections?
Earlier, silhouette was often about exaggeration and impact. I still love playing with scale, but today the contrasts are more considered. An oversized volume might sit next to something extremely precise, or something structured might collapse into something much softer
Earlier, silhouette was often about exaggeration and impact. I still love playing with scale, but today the contrasts are more considered. An oversized volume might sit next to something extremely precise, or something structured might collapse into something much softer. I have also become increasingly interested in Indian methods of constructing silhouette through wrapping and draping. The lungi and sari, for example, offer ways of creating shape around the body without boxing it into one fixed form. That dialogue between structure and freedom has become increasingly important to the way I design.
What does returning to the Milan runway mean to you after last season’s presentation around the idea of transit?
Last season we switched from a runway to a presentation format at the last minute due to a personal emergency that prevented me from travelling to Milan. So returning to the runway this season is really a continuation of the format we have consistently been building. For now, the runway remains an important format for the brand, but I don’t think any format needs to become permanent. It can evolve, change or become something completely different depending on what we want to communicate and how people engage with fashion in the coming years. I think the changing times will naturally guide our next moves.
You have also introduced the PUMA X RCB X Dhruv Kapoor capsule. What attracted you to this collaboration?
It was the opportunity to bring together three very distinct worlds. PUMA comes with a strong language of sport and performance, RCB carries an incredible sense of community and belonging, while we approach familiar codes through reconstruction and altered perspectives.
What interested me was the possibility of taking something as recognisable as sportswear and shifting it into our world without losing what made it familiar in the first place.
How did you translate your design language into a project that already has such strong sporting and cultural identities?
We started with familiar sporting codes and explored how our language could re-engineer them. Proportions were altered, familiar forms were reconstructed and a classic wallpaper floral was recrafted through hand embroidery, interrupting something sporty and performative with something slower and more tactile.
After Presence, what are you curious to explore next?
Presence feels like it closes a loop that began with Transit, so I am not necessarily interested in continuing that sequence. I would like the next chapter to come from a completely different place—something unexpected even for us. For now, I am curious to observe, absorb and allow the next idea to reveal itself rather than decide too quickly what it needs to be.
—manuvipin@newindianexpress.com
@ManuVipin
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