The power of Indian craft

Summer 2024 collection titled, Moonrise by Gaurav Jai Gupta

Gaurav Jai Gupta, whose interest in Indian textiles is matched only by his relentless championing of craft couture, travelled to the very edge of his comfort zone for his Summer 2024 show to give us more fashion, but also functionality. "As designers we tend to carry a lot of baggage in terms of ideas, processes, strengths, etc., from our past collections and get stuck with a specific vocabulary. I started this collection thinking, what is the future of Indian textiles on the global stage?" Gupta said at a post-show interview with mid-day.

Titled Moonrise, Thursday night's show at Lakme Fashion Week x FDCI was based around an exaggerated shape, signalling brand ambition with modern updates on Indian staples like churidars, sarees and tunics. Here, Gupta was interested in shadowing the shape of the body rather than cinching it, with necklines wide enough to fall off the shoulders, waists floating, hemlines flaring out at knee level. But it was the shoulders and sleeves that sat haughtily wide and long as it hung from a spirit level; that slightly otherworldly, slightly pampered ability to be deeply conscious and tailored. "I am at a point where I want to get the fashion language right and not be scared to cut [tailor]," he added.

Designer Gaurav Jai Gupta

The starting point of the collection was the leftover yarn and materials meticulously kept at his Lado Sarai studio, followed by referencing pastiche Wes Anderson films and working with longtime collaborator, stylist Nikhil Dudeja. Gupta belongs to the rapidly-disappearing tribe of craft purists; you'd most likely find him behind a loom developing silks rather than frothing at the mouth in front of Instagram Reels.

Taking advantage of his instinct for pure lines of couture, Moonrise was openly commercial - Gupta would rather call it "fresh and functional". This time, he worked with lighter, pliable fabrics like cotton, bamboo fibre, stainless steel and a mix of silk-cotton. "We are not known to be a summer brand, and so a showcase in Mumbai was a good opportunity to work with cotton while also breaking that mindset and simultaneously talking to the young, experimental audience. We have also been making this fabric which we call kinji for the last 12 years. It is a stretch fabric done on the loom. It is an Akaaro thing, and we plan to patent it soon."

"If a boy who grew up in the old quarters of Rohtak to a baniya [traders] family - my father does not know the ABCD of fashion - can do it, why can't more urban designers look at the power of Indian craft with more variety and profundity?"

It wasn't exactly "Central Perk", the fictional Friends coffee shop, but designer label Chola by Sohaya Misra managed to recreate some of its magic with her close friends and chai - courtesy her show sponsor, Tea Culture of the World, at Lakme Fashion Week x FDCI on March 14. Laapataa Ladies director Kiran Rao watched the show seated on the front row amongst the media while actors Konkona Sen Sharma and Neha Dhupia were the chosen showstoppers.

Urvashi gave us a democratic fit

Urvashi Kaur marked "15 fulfilling years" of her namesake label with a show that was focused on the community of like-minded folks rather than fashion per se on day 2 of the Lakme Fashion Week x FDCI. The Delhi designer has created a distinctive fashion language that fuses high textile aesthetic with ease, which seems like an unlikely coupling but somehow always works beautifully, and which looks as on-point now as it did a decade ago.

Designer Urvashi Kaur and her cast of personalities

There were no gimmicks at the show. No showstopper stomping on the catwalk. Just a fashion presentation featuring a cast of personalities like the wildly talented Ratna Pathak Shah, Tillotama Shome and Rasika Duggal, actors Shweta Tripathi and Mallika Dua, artist Gurjeet Singh, chef Suvir Saran, fashion stylists Gautam Kalra and Daniel Franklin, and drag artist Glorious Luna.

Danish Husain

But it was theatre actor-director Danish Husain who made quite a powerful statement by putting his hands up and showing his palms lettered with GAZA. The show resulted in symbolising the power of the collective and the might of personal expression. Undoubtedly, it is multifarious identities and voices that drive not only a democracy but fashion as well.