The survivor will relook at the saree

Hyderabad designer Anand Kabra has worked on the saree drape, offering it with a spunky spontaneity of an evening gown. Pic/ Shadab Khan

Designer Anand Kabra, 45, uses the word "closure" often when discussing his homecoming collection showcased on Friday at Lakmé Fashion Week (LFW). "The show is a metaphor to finding closure; letting go of what once was. I've matured as a designer, hopefully with a better understanding of myself, and about the business of fashion," he laughs.

A permanent fixture on the fashion week calendar since 2006, Kabra was never known to fuss over starry front rows or showstoppers. He enjoyed pulling apart the clichés of dressing, and in doing so, had presented an anarchic take on the saree, which proved to be groundbreaking in influence. "I rebelled with the saree," Kabra says. Long before the six yards found the fame it is currently grooving on, Kabra had rid the saree of its conventional unwieldiness, giving it an unfettered, intrepid sting. With the lehenga-saree combo, he replaced awkward antiquity with razor sharp lines, and used hand-embroidery and surface textures minus opulence.

But in the three years after his last showing at LFW 2016, the Hyderabad-based designer saw challenges he hadn't anticipated. "It was a manifestation of my worst nightmare," he remembers about his atelier in a basement at Panjagutta getting waterlogged during a series of freak showers in 2017. A few months later, he was diagnosed with avascular necrosis, a condition that results from the temporary or permanent loss of blood supply to the bone. "My hip bone was affected and I had to get surgery to arrest it." Both challenges chased each other, and although his work as a designer didn't stop, he resolved to take a break from fashion week and press. And social media.

The time off allowed him to take stock of priorities, friends, and question his identity. "Suddenly I was not this hot designer. I understood the frivolity of taking myself too seriously. I decided to shut the door on the way I was; constantly coming from a state of being emotional, and chose to be smart about the business,"
says Kabra.

His comeback show was a culmination of all the key design points from his previous blockbuster collections. He also chose to present upbeat versions of his signature embroideries, pitta (beaten metallic thread and wire embroidery), resham, sitara, zardozi and nag (crystals used to create a jewelled surface). "I'm tired of our clothes being termed 'exotic Indian costumes'. I design Indian clothes, and so, you might identify a particular silhouette as the kurta, but I could call it a dress. I've worked with easy, linear silhouettes that are strong on technique to create transitional pieces that can travel beyond a traditional form or the Indian framework. By adding or removing layers, each piece can adapt itself to a new environment, lifestyle, or occasion."

This season, the pre-stitched lehenga-saree made a reappearance, but in a new avatar, more user friendly and modern in a two-button form. He sounded "maha-chuffed" about his latest saree proposal. "I don't understand this craze for evening gowns, that's why I thought of a hybrid, based on the principles of a saree, but gown-like in appearance," he explains.

The plan of action here on is to invest time and figure out a non-traditional spin on the pallu. "Why is nobody questioning it [the pallu]?"

And in that one ephemeral moment of questioning, we see that Anand Kabra is back.

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