Designer duo Pankaj and Nidhi’s new edit, Loop, redefines infinity
For 16 years designer duo Pankaj and Nidhi have been impressing the fashion watchdogs with their labours of love that play around elegant structures, understated colour codes, and exquisite inlaid appliqué. If last year’s collection XV drew from the ceremonial Spanish traje de luces attire of the Matadors, their latest collection Loop — launched in LFWxFDCI — derives inspiration from the infinity symbol, and is an intense study in construction, designs, and silhouettes. An engaging range of evening wear, Loop offers a host of separates comprising dramatic new silhouettes, such as, kimono bombers, structured jackets, wide-leg elasticated waist pants, sharp jumpsuits, cocoon skirts, and embellished shoulder yokes. Created in layers with scalloped edges, detachable tuxedo yokes could be styled under jackets, dresses, blouses, tops, and even saris. The colour palette is dominated by burgundy or Bordeaux and claret, which Pankaj and Nidhi term the ‘new red’. These predominant colours are balanced with nude, cilantro, and black. The embellishments are latticed in infinity patterns, and hand-cut signature appliqués are reinvented by encrusting and quilting. Fabrics like felted wool, glazed silk organza and high-quality Duchess Satin, taffeta complete the list for the collection, which could be described as couture but with the techniques applied for ready-to- wear looks. Pankaj takes us through Loop in detail, unveiling it with an exclusive shoot for Indulge.
How different is Loop from your previous collections?
In each collection of ours there is a continuity as well as a newness. When we try to work on a new idea for a show or a collection, we have to feel inwardly excited about what we’re saying and representing, but the language remains the same. The collection is striking in terms of silhouettes this time. We have fashioned this from a structurally different kind of construction. When I was drawing the sketches for the line, there were a lot of column-like aesthetics, which I wanted to imbibe in the silhouettes. The silhouettes and pattern-making have this sharp structural — almost architectural quality to them.
What’s your design philosophy?
As a label, it has always been to tell a bold, striking aesthetic story of a vision rooted in craft and modernity. We like our runway collection to be as globally appealing as possible.
What inspired this collection?
As designers, we think we are a bit more sensitive, like so many other artists, to more inputs around the world, some of which can be songs, a certain chord of music, a sunrise or a sunset, or films. We are just deeply moved by visuals, architecture, spaces, art, cinema — a variety of things inspire us. For this collection, something stirred us deeply while watching Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar for the eighth or ninth time. The film has so many underlying themes, including family, love, and eternity. While we were watching Interstellar, we were thinking about the vastness of space and time. There was a black bordeaux burgundy tonality that sort of emerged in the colour palette. In our heads, time, space, continuum, would be this colour. It would not just be a stark void of black but so many deep dark tones, which are mysterious and far away. That’s what dictated our colour palette. The textural beiges and crusty, earthy palettes that you see in Loop are also sort of planetary textures — Saturn, Jupiter, faraway stars and space. It’s inspired by the idea of time and space but not a literal representation.
What are your personal fashion choices?
I have sort of gone into the palette of greys. It has become my favourite colour maybe because it is increasingly becoming the colour of my hair these days. I used to like black and navy blue at one point, but now its more of blurred boundaries of colours like grey, beige, and khaki. Nidhi likes to dress more vibrantly. But sometimes, we like to remain neutral because we have so much colour and pattern around us.
Who is your favourite fashion icon?
It will always be Rohit Bal. He was my mentor, and I worked with him for a decade. He’s a brother to me, a guide, a leader of thought, and an absolute original voice in fashion from India who possesses a breath-taking scope of work. Also, he has a great personal sense of style. A most humble and charismatic mix of love and vivaciousness, Rohit is an icon for the generations.
How experimental are Indian women getting when it comes to fashion?
Women in India are beautifully diverse in their outlook. They are very open to new ideas and to adapting. For instance, I love how Nidhi, my spouse and my co-designer dresses up in the most beautiful, traditional way during a festival. But she also dresses up in a modern, and sharp, manner for an occasion that calls for such. This kind of diversity, which Indian women can adapt to when they are at home, out for work or travelling, is what makes them special. I think nowhere in the world actually do women dress as interestingly and diversely as Indian women do. I am not talking about feathered hats, but the sheer diversity of it. They are also able to carry it off —from Kanjivaram saris, to chikankari kurtas.
What is the fashion forecast for 2025?
We shouldn’t blindly follow trends. We should dress as we please — as long as it makes us happy and not try to please anyone else, or to follow an influencer, an actor or even a designer’s dictates. We need to make conscious choices when it comes to fashion — to buy mindfully, to buy brands that we feel respect the ethos of how clothes should be made. I am not for mindless buying of merchandise where it probably ends up harming the environment and not doing anything for our minds and souls. Buy things that make you happy, and put you in a better headspace.
Who are your favourite emerging designers?
I really admire so many of them that I don’t want to name anyone particular. But there’s definitely a voice you see now and then, which evokes this kind of wonder and awe and makes you believe that creativity is alive and kicking in the budding Indian designers. I admire designers who do things totally rooted in their original quest for carving out an aesthetic for themselves.
What is the outline of your summer line?
A lot of this collection will flow into the SS’25 and emerge in a purer colour palette of ivory and nude and softer pastels. Loop is a collection that’s shaping up. It’s not like we put an abrupt stop to any one of our collections. There’s always a reflection and a flow that trickles over to the next. SS’25 could have visions of Loop from this season, and this evolution is what makes it all the more interesting.