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FSP's brides court shine

FSP’s brides court shine

What lights up a dull, dark rainy day? Heartthrob Vicky Kaushal, for sure, as Falguni and Shane Peacock didn’t shy away as usual from shine, all kinds of it, as well as clashing colours, but added Banarasis to celebrate two decades of making brides sparkle, presenting "Rang Mahal" at the ...
Hardware to Soft Wear

Hardware to Soft Wear

Rimzim Dadu shifts gears and adds motifs, inspired by Baroque, Western classical music, and architecture, to give intrepid women a flavour of innovative material manipulations.    By Asmita Aggarwal Engineered gowns, signature metal saris, couture has a different meaning for Rimzim Dadu, it is more of a play of textures, ...
Gaurav Gupta's ode to Indology

Gaurav Gupta’s ode to Indology

Gaurav Gupta is a man who vacillates between the ancient past and the ultra-modern—from “Shunya” to “Kundalini” to now “Arunodaya”, or dawn, for India Couture Week 2024, he is in awe of scriptures. He has not forgotten the power of AI in the past, when he teamed up with tech ...
Nizams Reloaded

Nizams Reloaded

Basra pearls, Banarasis, Khada duppattas with ultra-modern corsets, Jayanti Reddy, a business graduate, self-taught designer, offers brides a potent mix of traditional with “now” at the Hyundai India Couture Week 2024. The highlight has been her collaboration with Italian jewellery powerhouse-Bvlgari. By Asmita Aggarwal One thing is clear Jayanti Reddy ...
Rahul Mishra's Valley of Daffodils

Rahul Mishra’s Valley of Daffodils

Flower power never loses its prowess, and Rahul Mishra at Hyundai ICW 2024, made sure the embroidered dupattas were unisex, the pants-suit is now out of the boardroom and frolicking at a cocktail party in a line titled, “Nargis”. By Asmita Aggarwal Nargis or daffodil is a lively yellow flower, ...
Game of Time

Game of Time

Amit Aggarwal serenades the impossibility, linearity, unpredictability of time and maybe tide, through his show as the past (cotton) meets the present (nylon), through his newly created fabric this season for Hyundai India Couture Week 2024. By Asmita Aggarwal When I watched the Amit Aggarwal show at the India Couture ...
Valaya's Flying Carpets

Valaya’s Flying Carpets

From embroideries inspired by Mughal miniature paintings, big, broad embroidered belts cinching Sherwanis to reinventing the humble shalwar, cherry red lehengas to lighter chevron palazzos, J J Valaya redefined bridal wear. By Asmita Aggarwal It was the music directed, produced by Sahil Vasudeva, at the J J Valaya ICW 2024 ...
Dolly J's Midas Touch

Dolly J’s Midas Touch

Body positivity, 3D motifs and inventing a new fabric, which rustles like paper but is organza, made Dolly J’s ICW 2024 show, feel like a bouquet of roses. By Asmita Aggarwal Actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha’s wife Poonam, came to support her newly married daughter Sonakshi, in a woven sari. The set was ...
Kunal pursues Patolas

Kunal pursues Patolas

Kunal Rawal introduces Patola-inspired weave for grooms, turning tables on  traditionality; he serenades us with denim dhotis, and comfort, to make sure reusability, and functionality co-exist at ICW 2024. By Asmita Aggarwal Remember Ranbir Kapoor’s hybrid dhoti, well, Kunal Rawal is the one to take risks. Even though he is young ...
Tytler's Echoes of Roman Grandeur

Tytler’s Echoes of Roman Grandeur

Taking us back in time, to the Roman empire, replete with its imposing iconography, Siddartha Tytler’s dark, grand line played with asymmetry, sheer and glimmering rhinestones at the ICW 2024.   By Asmita Aggarwal He is the quintessential Mr Handsome Rahul Khanna, it has a lot to do with his ...
Suneet Varma's ode to shine

Suneet Varma’s ode to shine

 Mirror work, to mokaish, shimmer has always been the highlight of Suneet Varma's oeuvre, even as the designer, who was trained by Yves Saint Laurent announces, there is nothing better than being in the spotlight on your D-Day at ICW 2024! By Asmita Aggarwal What I really look forward to in ...
Here’s a glimpse of Roseroom by Isha Jajodia @roseroom official at the Hyundai India Couture Week 2024 on 25th July.Presenting “Art of Eternity” a love story whispered in lace and meticulou

Roses with lace for Isha Jajodia

Lace and Chikankari make a heady combo, as Isha of Rose Room woos brides with a softer, lighter full skirt, with just charming hints of shimmer for ICW 2024. By Asmita Aggarwal Black, lace and Jackie! There seems to be nothing better than this, add a top bun to this ...
Abu-Sandeep's triumph of love

Abu-Sandeep’s triumph of love

Their mission is to elevate craft to art, like they did with Chikankari, or mirror work, added white to couture; for 38 years Abu-Sandeep have been the undisputed frontrunners of luxury. They brought ASAL and MARD to Delhi for the first time at Hyundai ICW 2024. By Asmita Aggarwal It ...
Voluminous Sculpting

Voluminous Sculpting

Giant moths on chests, cutwork forests on body huggers and you throw in a little of Henri Rousseau and a children book, The Fox and the Star, you get Rahul Mishra’s inspiration behind his LFW X FDCI 2024 AFEW line.    By Asmita Aggarwal Would you ever wear the wing of a ...
No Gender Coding

No Gender Coding

There is a ‘fragility in masculinity’ and Arjun Saluja finds this conundrum a collection-worthy theme. After six years he is back at the FDCI showcase at LFW with his gender bender clothing hoping to solve the puzzle of conditioning or at least question it! By Asmita Aggarwal Frankly, in fashion there ...
Revisiting roots

Revisiting roots

Whether it is Gaza, Kashmir, Syria or Ukraine, human exodus is captured poignantly through embroideries and embellishments as well as abstract outlines by the maverick Sushant Abrol of the menswear label Countrymade. By Asmita Aggarwal He had a child-like excitement every time he begins work on a new collection and ...
“In India sex, humour, and politics sells”

“In India sex, humour, and politics sells”

Jay Jajal founder of Jaywalking will tell you he is returning to simplicity, is excited about his ‘test fit’ garment, calls his drawings ugly and reveals his USP is that he is a fabulous marketeer! By Asmita Aggarwal Jay Jajal aspired to be a rapper, and he thanks his good ...
Unmasking AI

Unmasking AI

Almost 36 Pearl students showcase the benefits and pitfalls of AI in “AI is contagious”, at LFW X FDCI 2024 with an interesting display of ideas through pixelation, distortions and translucency. By Asmita Aggarwal London, Milan, New York, and Paris, and India Fashion Week, almost over, fashion houses are ready ...
Measuring Up

Measuring Up

S and N, the brothers Shantnu and Nikhil have replaced the mini "It" bag and given it to men, in dhotis and sexiness with abundant leg show for women along with dollops of shimmer. While quite the opposite was post-Soviet modest label Measure, which revealed the former Communist country is ...
Ready for a swim?

Ready for a swim?

Saaksha Bhat and Kinnari Kamat launch a swimwear edition, complete with their signature micro pleating, and elevate it with quilting and ikat. But the Gujarati genes hold strong with their unadulterated love for mirror work! By Asmita Aggarwal Saaksha Bhat and her sister-in-law Kinnari Kamat, understand embroideries like no one ...
Monochrome Contrasts

Monochrome Contrasts

Ritika Mirchandani offers tone-on-tone, summer pastels with placement bling for occasion wear this season. By Asmita Aggarwal “My mother has been the most inspiring figure in my life. As a designer herself, she introduced me to the world of fashion from a very young age. Growing up surrounded by her ...
Princess of style

Princess of style

Niloufer Khanum of Hyderabad was the OG of fashion influencers with her Westernising the sari, adding exquisite pearls and it is this regality that Anushree Reddy recreates in organzas this season for the bride who chooses subtle shine over overt bling. By Asmita Aggarwal It has been a ten-year long ...
AK is Ok

AK is Ok

The twins Vishesh and Viraj, one an artist, and the other born with a business acumen, embarked on a journey to give their mom Anamika Khanna a respite when they started AK-OK, but now it has a legion of followers owing to its unpredictable prints, placements raw embroideries, tattered denims ...
Alpha Women

Alpha Women

 Inca or incarnation by Amit Hansraj is for women who are mature, confident and know that clothes are extension of them not the other way round and it is this individuality that he hopes to celebrate each season. By Asmita Aggarwal Amit Hansraj has been in the fashion world for ...
Think Chill

Think Chill

Remember The Jetsons, and the 90s trend Vaporwave? Kanika Goyal brings that shiny high gloss vibe to the line she has designed for the American brand Skechers. By Asmita Aggarwal After four years at NIFT Delhi and then Parsons New York, where she studied for two years, Kanika Goyal was ...
An evening Soiree

An evening Soiree

Paras and Shalini of Geisha Designs offer sundowner clothing complete with cording, macrame, as nostalgia remains their anthem for this season, creating the various elements of nature, through fabric manipulations. By Asmita Aggarwal Olsen twins label The Row banned phones in their showcase recently at the Paris Fashion Week 2024 ...
Right to Repair

Right to Repair

Ashita Singhal started as a curious fashion student wanting to know how to upcycle waste, and that’s how Paiwand, her label was conceptualized. Winning the Nexa Spotlight and telling us that re-woven is austerity personified; she is consciously saving the planet one less stitch at a time. By Asmita Aggarwal ...
Hoops of Hope

Hoops of Hope

Nitya Arora of the accessories brand Valliyan celebrates its 15th anniversary by paying tribute to bugs and beetles, quiet warriors, in a new sci-fi avatar, who help balance our fragile eco-system through her brass and copper gold plated jewellery. By Asmita Aggarwal The brand got its name from her grandmother’s blessings, ...
Wear Calm

Wear Calm

Urvashi Kaur had all the makings of a hit show—a bevy of intellectuals from Ratna Pathak Shah to Rasika Duggal as well as relaxed clothing armed with natty wraps, coppery saris, easy tie ups that announced the arrival of a comfortable spring, as she completed 15 years in the business ...
Valaya on wheels

Valaya on wheels

From Chevrons to inclusivity, J J Valaya tells us individualistic women are the most fun to interact with and that his bridge line JJV Kapurthala is only helping you dress quicker and smarter. Asmita Aggarwal The shifting leaf Chevron which is the staple of JJ Valaya’s fashion house, was created ...

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Anish Malpani CDC winner tells us his journey from being a finance honcho in the US to recycling chip wrappers into chic eyewear, as he hopes to build a waste-free world where you wear his “Without” sunnies sans any guilt. Asmita Aggarwal Both his parents are doctors and till the ...
Simple Weaves

Simple Weaves

Gaurav Jai Gupta takes you on a journey to watch a Wes Anderson film through his ingenious weaving techniques, blazing ochres and endearing ‘kinji’ saris in 'Moonrise'.  Asmita Aggarwal When you must fight for everything you get, you take nothing for granted, and sometimes that story of struggle becomes a ...
One size fits all

One size fits all

Chola by Sohaya Misra is back after five years to tell us clothes must be alive, have movement and adjustable, defying conventional norms of dressing according to your size and body type.                                     ...
‘Sari is the Chanel of luxury’

‘Sari is the Chanel of luxury’

Hand woven and timeless Gaurang Shah for LFW X FDCI 2024 is back with an ode to spring with ‘Gulal’, with hand painted charkha woven khadi saris. Asmita Aggarwal Designer Gaurang Shah, won the National Film Award for Best Costume Designer in the Telugu film Mahanati, directed by Nag Ashwin, ...
Dressing Big B

Dressing Big B

The Sun and Moon two stars have fascinated Archana Rao thus the moniker for her LFW X FDCI 2024 line, but she is excited to have done costumes for Amitabh Bachchan, Deepika Padukone and Kamal Haasan in Kalki 2898 AD, creating futuristic character sketches! By Asmita Aggarwal Hyderabad-based Archana Rao is ...
The War Within

The War Within

Bomb blasts, barren land, soldier writings on walls and stones, how war destroys the fabric of mankind and its futility has been beautifully mirrored through deft stitches by Sushant Abrol’s label Countrymade. By Asmita Aggarwal From writing poetry, to working with 8-10 needlework techniques, using imagery of his late Air ...
Moon Power

Moon Power

Paying homage to the moon landing and India’s homegrown space programme Pearl Academy students delve into the future to showcase how it could be the next vacation destination through metallics, anti-gravity hair and hybrid ensembles. By Asmita Aggarwal The Chandrayaan-3 mission, was a homegrown one, as the country reached the lunar south polar region, “India ...
Sari Stories

Sari Stories

From jersey to satin Shweta Kapoor’s saris tell us you can walk the talk with this slithering drape, as she adds an 80s touch to it, this season. By Asmita Aggarwal ...
Brand by Hand

Brand by Hand

Giving leather longevity through contemporary design, Sonal Varma of Rara Avis, offers versatile shapes for a global traveller. By Asmita Aggarwal ...
The last ‘resort’

The last ‘resort’

Offering sustainable fabrics, swimwear with reversible styles and interesting prints, Reby Kumar of Guapa is embarking on, making dressing for your next holiday under the palms, super comfortable. By Asmita Aggarwal ...
Engineered embroidery

Engineered embroidery

From embroidery created out of scrap, to making even the motifs move along as you wear the ensemble Anurag Gupta woos the unusual. By Asmita Aggarwal ...
Lost Tribes

Lost Tribes

Tribal imagery comes alive in Aseem Kapoor’s free size, super comfy offerings for women who choose practicality over transient shine. By Asmita Aggarwal ...
Study of contrasts

Study of contrasts

Anju Modi is paying homage to “white weddings”, with signature crafts and a wish to move away from conventional palettes. By Asmita Aggarwal ...
Bead Seeds

Bead Seeds

From launching various verticals to the mothership brand Geisha Designs, Paras and Shalini this year elevate embellishment with corsetry and serenade the extended family with their love for Victorian needle work and beads. By Asmita Aggarwal ...
Revisiting Memories

Revisiting Memories

15 years and making a mark with classics from the stable, Pankaj and Nidhi combine their strengths from dori work to quilting, creating affable tuxedo jackets and trumpet skirts. By Asmita Aggarwal ...
Right Strokes

Right Strokes

Swimwear mavericks, and now ski wear experts, Shivan and Narresh offer us a glimpse of Finland through their specially crafted prints combined with hand painting. By Asmita Aggarwal ...
Spinning Luxury

Spinning Luxury

“Handspun” is Himanshu Shani’s leitmotif this LFW, as he celebrates innately Indian techniques and processes from Bandhej to Ajrak and natural indigo dyeing making a play for incorporating kala cotton in Gen Z style lexicon   By Asmita Aggarwal ...
Social Intelligence

Social Intelligence

Anjali Mehta Patel, a first timer in Delhi is hoping to wow buyers with her au naturale offerings constructed with Bemberg, replete with India stories done in heady prints. By Asmita Aggarwal ...
Crafting a legacy

Crafting a legacy

Working with renowned weaver Prasanta Basak to offer a new language of Indian clothing, Swatti Kapoor is hoping to elevate the humble salwar-kameez, with innovative substitutes in natural fabrics. By Asmita Aggarwal ...
Simple Thinking

Simple Thinking

Ka-Sha completes ten years in fashion, she infuses the line with imagery of emotions replicated through the prism of relaxed clothing, and monochromes as bead work becomes a show stealer. By Asmita Aggarwal ...
Retro Revival

Retro Revival

Think disco, bell bottoms, Manhattan’s Studio 54 and Ashish Soni’s play with the oversized, androgynous look —-strong shoulders and suiting materials as his forte tailoring, takes centerstage. By Asmita Aggarwal ...
Motorcycle Diaries

Motorcycle Diaries

Riding, and utility make a play in Abhishek Paatni’s line that takes us back to the simple joys of life, finding peace through biking and urging us to slow down, choosing the wild road less travelled up the mountains. By Asmita Aggarwal You would imagine an MBA and engineer to ...
Sari Stories

Sari Stories

The tuxedo blouse, wide lapels, geometric shapes, hints of metallic glitter, ode to charcoals, the boy from Mubarikpur Sanjay Garg of Raw Mango, told us the sari is as cool as a floor sweeping, Paris-returned gown. By Asmita Aggarwal ...
Tiger Tales

Tiger Tales

Couturier Rahul Mishra is a conversation starter, a dialogue initiator that’s why couture for him is about a narrative that transcends the discussion about silhouettes, shapes or forms. ICW 2023 was an ode to sequins, flowers and the king of the jungle!  By Asmita Aggarwal ...
Khadi Sutra

Khadi Sutra

His take on the South Indian Mundu with the woven border kara, pleasing monochromes, delectable stripes, and restrained shine, just like the couturier Rajesh Pratap Singh was befitting at his first outing, redefining luxury at ICW 2023. By Asmita Aggarwal ...
Pearls of Wisdom

Pearls of Wisdom

Dolly J uses the radiance of pearls to add glow to her army of gowns, as couture transcends from glitter to subtle. By Asmita Aggarwal ...
Aroma of Roses

Aroma of Roses

Isha J debuts with a line with the perfect showstopper the curvaceous Vani Kapoor, displaying a collection that combined Chikankari with lace, and of course ‘sinful’ washboard abs. By Asmita Aggarwal ...
Layered Intrusions

Layered Intrusions

Serenading layering, separates and fluidity the market-savvy brothers Shantnu and Nikhil, complete 24 years with almost 16 stores domestically. At ICW they managed to add dollops of deliciousness with Aditya Roy Kapur and the pint sized beauty  Sara Ali Khan. But the coup was Nikhil Mehra’s 16-year-old son Vivhan, making his ...
Wizards of Time

Wizards of Time

From ‘Fibonacci’ to ‘Equinox’, the admiration for Maths and its lasting solutions have fascinated the duo, who have been on this creative journey together for 25 years, and counting. ICW 2023 was about romancing 3D embroideries and just like their themes, the precision it echoes, is mirrored in cuts. By ...
Artist at Work

Artist at Work

No artificial intelligence here, just plain, old techniques that still capture the essence of luxury, controlling materials which have a mind of their own is Rimzim Dadu’s specialty. By Asmita Aggarwal ...