Indian designers have gone back to their roots, while acknowledging the momentous developmental changes within the country that was once a textile land. Our designer profiles and mini-podcasts take you behind the scenes and into their processes.
In his pieces, there is a celebration of Indian arts and crafts—from traditional weaves to high art, from ancient sculptures to their renderings in modern silhouettes.
Philosophy, poetry, and painting find a home in Swatti’s deeply intertextual work.
Complacency is an anathema to fashion, to be comfortable around skin is its epitome.
A cool brickwork corner of a factory is where Mason and Mill began. The idea was to create clothes of an easygoing kind that the designer could herself wear in the swelter of a Mill.
Surrounded by the clairvoyance of gemstones and combined with a love for the handloom, Hemji chooses to put all the elemental energies of air, water, earth and sun into its fabric. There is no right way to wear a Hemji, one is free to experiment.
Texture itself is imperfect and there is no such thing as plain. Knowing that the perfection of handmade is in its imperfection, Paher’s aestheticism marries the modern to the handmade.
Being minimal and simple evades the question of categorising oneself into the genres of high and low fashion. Basant Kothi moves towards sustainable choices with a neutral and clean aesthetic which is highly understated.
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Mapping the visual language systems of the Himalayas and intermingling these with Buddhist iconography is the sort of stuff that Lhanzey Palden does with Mapcha. If there was a wearable ode to Ladakh and Tibet, Mapcha is its bard.
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Shirin Salwan’s garments, with its clean lines and muted colours, embody the Esprit Nouveau of Le Corbusier’s Chandigarh, the designer’s home city.
Adheera crafts garments that are earthy and free-flowing with delicate shibori designs, in a process that is deeply rooted in sustainability.
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The versatility of handmade is seen clearly in the work of women that Arun Khatua employs at the Belun Hasta Shilp Kuti Society.
For Kilchu, inspirations are almost always quirky and close at hand. A little found object could be the seed idea to an entire collection. Yet, Kilchu aims at not only being spontaneous but also by responding to nature and what’s contemporary.
The coastal town of Pondicherry—its buildform, cornices and vivid colours—has been a constant inspiration for Bidisha Samantaray at Lal Design Studio.
Urvashi Kaur’s clothing, with its structured cuts and fluid silhouettes, embodies an aesthetic that is gender fluid and trans-seasonal.
Voluminous yet sustainable, Ka-Sha works on the blank canvas of kora kapda or the plain white cloth. With her brand, designer Karishma Shahani brings back the maximalist urge, although with restraint.
With her brand being a process laid out in the first letters of the words ‘Seeker, Wander, Gatherer and Thinker’, Shweta Gupta is a master of moving forms, as the body moves, there is a kind of fluidity inspired by the sharp light and shade one observes in the Himalayas.
The pure freedom of free visualisation is the name of the game for Rini Agarwal, the founder of O’Frida. Her process is a painstaking recreation of a visual dream.
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Sonal Mehta works with marginalised communities in Gujarat, particularly the Kotwalia bamboo workers of Dang, empowering them with modern bamboo utilisation techniques.
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Unabashedly political and contemporary, Rather’s work stems from his Kashmiri identity. The art of Raffu, or the healing of fabric, is melded through Raffughar’s alchemy to speak of the travails of an uncertain life in the valley.
After a decade in the fashion industry, Rina Singh found herself at odds with it and now aims to redefine Indian fashion by breaking away from the limitations of the mainstream.
Line Outline is a cry against what the designer Deepit Chugh calls ‘hardcore mass’ retail, where the choice of clothes that men can wear is severely limited in range and imagination. Line Outline is an attempt at changing this state of affairs.
Aeka is Sanskrit for the number one. It denotes the matchless zeal with which the brand approaches linen, the designer’s favourite fabric, to make sustainable designs for young and environmentally conscious consumers.
Fool Dost works with artisan communities from Gujarat, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh, amalgamating their work with Laura Halliwell’s cuts and silhouettes.
Charmee Ambavat works with a colour palette that has been long disregarded in the annals of fashion: the many shades of brown, green and white.
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November Noon is an attempt by the designer Deepak Shah at bringing heritage handloom closer to the younger generation. His outfits are replete with traditional and modern motifs.
Journey of Object's home brand is what happens when journalism meets design, when stories are transformed into a Journalism of Touch.
Mina Ben burst into the scene with a hat seen on Hailey Bieber's head on the cover of American Vogue. Since then, there has been no looking back.
In his pieces, there is a celebration of Indian arts and crafts—from traditional weaves to high art, from ancient sculptures to their renderings in modern silhouettes.
Philosophy, poetry, and painting find a home in Swatti’s deeply intertextual work.
Complacency is an anathema to fashion, to be comfortable around skin is its epitome.
Being minimal and simple evades the question of categorising oneself into the genres of high and low fashion. Basant Kothi moves towards sustainable choices with a neutral and clean aesthetic which is highly understated.
Mapping the visual language systems of the Himalayas and intermingling these with Buddhist iconography is the sort of stuff that Lhanzey Palden does with Mapcha. If there was a wearable ode to Ladakh and Tibet, Mapcha is its bard.
Shirin Salwan’s garments, with its clean lines and muted colours, embody the Esprit Nouveau of Le Corbusier’s Chandigarh, the designer’s home city.
Adheera crafts garments that are earthy and free-flowing with delicate shibori designs, in a process that is deeply rooted in sustainability.
The versatility of handmade is seen clearly in the work of women that Arun Khatua employs at the Belun Hasta Shilp Kuti Society.
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Journey of Objects is the digital arm of Object, a narrative journalism magazine focused on fashion, culture and society. JoB offers a retail experience showcasing Indian designers and artisans from deep inside India's craft belt.
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