With day-to-evening wear outfits fast becoming the fashion choice of the hour, labels are flooding the market with options both plain and novel. But if there’s any label that can truly transform your mundane office wear into something unusually chic for your evening outings, it has to be péro. The brand, spearheaded by Aneeth Arora and her team, closed the Lakmé Fashion Week x FDCI in Mumbai with yet another stunning showcase of their newest fall–winter collection, Out of Office.
The whole range of blue and white was a story in structure versus softness, with minimalism and restraint as the focus of the narrative. The focus was on purity of form, texture, and tone, be it the anti-fit jackets, androgynous tops and shirts, dresses, oversized pants, scarves, or caps. The garments featured tie-and-dye works, Delft blue earthenware-inspired Chinese porcelain-like florals and classic péro checks and stripes layered with mixed- media ornamentations. The weaves included Maheshwari cotton silk, Bengal cotton, South Indian silk, Varanasi silks and brocades, Himachal and Punjab wool, Mashru from Gujarat, Pashmina from Kashmir, and Chanderi from Madhya Pradesh. Pom-poms, fringes, and hand-knit textures added another dimension to a restrained palette of two shades.
We had a chat with Aneeth post-show on the same and more.
What was the idea behind the show and its design?
This season at péro, we wanted to celebrate the harmony between practicality and playfulness. The Fall-Winter 2026 garments are designed to move effortlessly through the day, grounded in comfort and craft for work, yet expressive and joyful enough for moments of leisure. It is a beige and off-white edit, since this time we decided that we wanted to use blue and white because we were continuously doing very colourful winters. It wasn’t difficult; in fact, it was easy to be able to work with only two colours. Even with the two colours, we’ve achieved a lot of different textures and patterns.
Take us through the silhouettes that you chose. How did you create the textures?
The idea was that it should not be restricted to 9–5 clothing. So, the highlight of the season was stripes, which we did in every possible width, from thin ones to bold ones.
In terms of textures, we did stripes in ikat, in thick cotton, and we were weaving stripes in West Bengal in khadi. In South India, we were doing silk stripes. So, we achieved all those textures, and since it was winter, we did a lot of knits with these two colours.
We achieved a fur-like texture made out of looping knitted woollen yarns. That was the highlight texture of the season that we used a lot across the collection. The advantage of working with blue and white is that it was easy for us to experiment with textures and our focus became that.
How do you come up with such novel fashion narratives each time?
I think the one common factor every year is the fact that we want to engage people in an experience where they become a part of our world. And the first thing that we want them to experience is their inner child. There’s a great sense of nostalgia in our storytelling.
There’s always something childlike and innocent in how we narrate our story for the season. And that in turn awakens the inner child in the audience. We like to tickle all senses, be it sound, touch, or feel. And you know, there is always this sense that people who are watching the show should feel a part of our storytelling. It’s almost like inviting them into our minds and giving them a peek into what we were thinking when we were creating the collection.
Stefan Kaye has been creating music for us for the past 10 years. In fact, I asked him to write a piece about his experience with us, and he captured it beautifully. The first show he did with us was set in a classroom, where the performers were like a rowdy group of students, sitting on desks and making music by tapping pencils and rulers. He described the journey perfectly, calling it From the Classroom to the Office. It sounded so beautiful. And I think that’s what the beauty of working with the same people, because they understand the DNA of the brand. They know that there is a very, very strong underlying theme to the season, but we can never leave the audience unhappy. There has to be that feeling of joy in the end. And that’s how they create music for us. It beautifully transitions from the show’s theme to a feeling where everybody almost feels like leaving their chairs and dancing.
How many states across India do you pull your handwoven fabric from?
Every season, there are five key regions that we work with. Parallelly, we have our all-timers who are always a part of every season because they make our base fabrics. So, about 8–10 clusters and 600–800 weavers and craftsmen are engaged with us. The primary fabrics are cottons and khadis from West Bengal. Then there are these very light Chanderis and Maheshwaris from Madhya Pradesh. We get a lot of our silks from South India. Wool is mostly from Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, and Kashmir. And then there are techniques from Varanasi where we do brocades, both in cotton and silk. Tie-dye and block prints come from Rajasthan and Gujarat.
How has péro evolved along with you in these 16 years?
I think péro, of course, has evolved from what we used to do in the initial few seasons to now. But I’ve evolved as a person more, and I’ve got that confidence that if I want to do something and if I have a strong team, anything and everything is achievable. Initially, when I was thinking of working with certain clusters in India, I would find it a little challenging to reach them and to be able to do things on time because fashion has a very strict cycle. But with time we’ve gained that confidence, and we’re being able to express ourselves holistically without any fear or without facing any challenges.
What are the brand’s plans for the next year?
We are always working on the next two or three seasons. We work two years in advance. So, for me, there’s always something new happening. Of course, we’ve also ventured into péro home, which will become increasingly visible in India as we begin working with retail outlets. And eventually we would like to have our own retail space.
What are the summer trends this year?
I think we are no one to dictate it to anybody else. But white is becoming a colour capable of giving respite. And I think that is the hero colour. And in terms of silhouettes, anything from shirts, and trousers, to tops and jackets, which are comfortable yet stylish, will be trending.