SPUNK, nostalgia and a cool girl attitude is what Chennai-based label Blueprint’s new collection Old School ’19 is all about. With their capsule collection, they are taking you down memory lane by reimagining the good ol’ school uniform and giving it their own edgy twist. Started in 2017 by sisters Navya and Divya Niranjan, the duo launched their first collection Dastkari, but soon took a break. Due to logistic issues, lack of funds and tailors, the project had to be put off indefinitely. However, the sisters are back at it, and Old School ’19 will be launched on their Instagram page today.
“We have 12 styled outfits in shackets, shirts, skirts and jackets. I’d like to call this line modern, fierce and feminine,” explains Divya, co-founder of Blueprint, adding that they have used a blend of hemp and Lyocell for this line. “Hemp is a kind of seed that is made into a fabric, and we realised that the fabric is extremely cooling even during the summer. We source it from Mumbai and it has been such a versatile fabric to play around with.” The colour palette for Old School ’19 is dark with colours like navy blue, olive green, grey and black in coordinated separates, with a play on textural contrast. Divya points out that they don’t dabble much with embroidery and stick to playing with patterns by using fabrics of different texture.
For the line, they’ve replaced pleats with pintucks, hemlines with scallops and extended the collar into a tie. They also have cropped jackets and intricately sewn detailed sleeve. On a call with Navya who lives in Santa Clara, she says that she’s always loved the concept of having a school uniform, as opposed to choosing what you want to wear to school. “I liked the sense of belonging we had, and the whole ‘ready to take on the world’ feeling,” she says adding that she just wanted to make a fun version of the otherwise basic pleated uniforms. When it comes to creative dynamics between the sisters, younger sister Divya says that her Navya designs the piece and sends it to her from Santa Clara. “I procure the fabric, coordinate with tailors and get silhouettes structured into place,” explains Divya. The duo doesn’t have a formal background in fashion but have always had an inclination towards styling and have styled actors like Regina Cassandra, Aishwarya Rajessh, Nikki Galrani, Priya Anand and Raiza Wilson, in the last one year. Divya also recently styled for multi-designer store Maalgadi’s Beach Please pop-up.
Ask her how different Old School ’19 is from Dastkari and she says that while the structures remained the same, there was a lot of dramatic layering. “We had lapel coats and jumpsuits with an open back, with a white shirt inside. Then we had full-length long shirts with oversized sleeves and a jacket. There was no embroidery, and we used a lurex linen fabric for patterning. It was not a collection for everyone, unlike Old School ’19 which I think is more versatile.” Their future plans include launching one collection every year.
Launches today.
Starts at `8,000.