Siddhartha Bansal plays with the hues of life, as he crafts new shapes using optical illusion and sheer curiosity leaving us in admiration of his fluid, layered offerings.
By Asmita Aggarwal
Growing up among the sights and sounds of Chandni Chowk, Siddhartha Bansals exposure to fashion may have been limited but his exposure to the mysteries of life was unlimited. This is what made him the designer he is today, of course, also inheriting the creative gene from his artist mom, whom he used to watch making hand made watercolor cards for every big occasion for family and friends.
After NIIFT, Mohali and several internships from Satya Paul to Nida Mahmood and Manish Arora, Bansal launched his label six years back, after he learnt how important it was to meet deadlines, manage finances with no one in the family to back him, he bootstrapped his entire business, being a first-generation entrepreneur.
Reimaging ideas during covid, scaling down and getting off the proverbial treadmill, he created an e-commerce digital website and also launched a menswear line with bundis, sherwanis and jackets. The paisleys are existent but in a finer stylized format, each motif is worked on in-house, investing in a magnanimous print gallery.
The FDCIXLFW line has innovatively accentuated pile embroidery which gives a 3D effect, with a raised surface, and a velvety feel. Recently I visited Paris for a trade show and surprisingly, the architecture reminded me of Old Delhithe carvings, small doors leading to megastructures hidden inside, the mysteries of art engulfing the walls brimming with culture and history, as if time had stood still, he explains.
Winning the Nexa Spotlight contest this year, Bansal is inspired by the definition of colour, and how it impacts us physiologically. There are over 10 billion colours that the human eye can spot, according to the theory of hues, and each one affects our mood and energyboth spiritual and physical. It represents awakened chakras and wisdom, as tones ride our emotion, in turn becoming emblematic of his brand. I never thought brightness will ever be my theme, but my clients made me realise this fact as they often said, I like the way you have combined these two shades, he reiterates.
The pandemic, he admits, made him discover himself, the artist that he longed to be as a child and how he would style himself and others, be picky about what to wear. This season for FDCXLFW, organza and sheer lose themselves in layers of colours that are as contrasting and vivacious as the treatment Bansal has given them. Crafting an optical illusion with patterns, lemons and tangerines, meet rani pinks and ocean blues, it is a mélange of tonalities.
Confessing that he is a risk taker, Bansal, has offered new shapes for the fashion week, and says his curiosity brought him this far in his profession, as he credits this to his mom. I still have preserved the tracing paper she used to sketch on and paint, I cherish it. From my father I have inherited the love for history, and he always told me, the basics will remain the same, no matter how advanced human life will get due to the advent of technology, as history proves how we have grown from the past, he concludes.