Upcycled denim and event put on spotlight Lakme Vogue Week 2024

In tandem with Navaratri and Durga Puja, a unique festivity unfolded in Delhi: the newest version of Lakmé Vogue Week (LFW) in partnership with the Vogue Design Council of India (FDCI).

Hosted between October 9 and 13 throughout The Grand resort in Delhi and some off-site venues corresponding to The Imperial resort and a colonial constructing in Barakhamba, this version of LFW — which can have a good time its silver jubilee subsequent yr — offered collections from over 45 designers, plus scholar reveals and retail model displays from Marks & Spencer and Kalki.

Moreover, the calendar included the R|Elan Round Design Problem (CDC), an annual competitors organised in partnership with the UN in India; this yr noticed seven finalists, together with three worldwide labels, compete for the prize cash and a change to showcase their assortment on the runway within the subsequent season. Listed below are vignettes from this season, key rising developments and reveals that celebrated each nostalgia and innovation.

Canvas of denim

“Denim, for us, represents versatility and resilience — qualities that resonate deeply with our design ethos. It’s a cloth that we repeatedly reimagine,” says Pranav Mishra, co-founder of Huemn, who streaked the fabric with mud for a group in collaboration with textile firm R|Elan. Huemn was among the many many labels which experimented with denim this season, whether or not it was basic blue, washed and distressed, embellished and embroidered. This included Pero’s collaborative line with Hey Kitty, designer Payal Pratap who has used it for the primary time in a group and menswear designer Pawal Sachdevaa’s designs which featured denim handled with washes, color, and brushstrokes. Not one to ever fade totally from the developments cycle, denim is nevertheless set for a much bigger comeback, in line with Sunil Sethi, president of FDCI which additionally hosted The Denim Edit on day two. The group present featured 5 designers — Ashish N Soni, 1:11/ Eleven Eleven, Dhruv Kapoor, Kanika Goyal Label (KGL), and Countrymade — whose work incorporates the fabric.

Mannequin walks the ramp throughout KGL present on the Lakme Vogue Week 2024
| Picture Credit score:
Good Shadows / FDCI x Lakme Vogue Week / RISE Worldwide

Conversations round denim in recent times focussing on its water-intensive processes and use of synthetics for stretch led many designers to work on low-impact options. At 11.11/eleven.eleven, co-founders Mia Morikawa and Shani Himanshu showcased a line of handspun and handwoven denim crafted utilizing natural cotton and pure dyes corresponding to indigo and madder. Sushant Abrol, designer and founding father of Countrymade used leftover denim to create a patchwork floor sample paying homage to camouflage. Denim was additionally on the core of Rkive Metropolis, a label by Ritwik Khanna who received this yr’s R|Elan Round Design Problem, an annual competitors hosted in partnership with the UN in India.

Mannequin walks the ramp throughout Pankaj and Nidhi present on the Lakme Vogue Week 2024
| Picture Credit score:
Good Shadows / FDCI x Lakme Vogue Week / RISE Worldwide

Understated event put on

On the penultimate day of trend week, Tarun Tahiliani unveiled OTT, a brand new luxurious prêt label with a forthcoming flagship retailer amongst different retail plans. Luxurious prêt is an rising class in Indian excessive trend, with various labels — primarily couture and event put on — launching collections and sub-labels that supply extra reasonably priced iterations of signature designs. Tarun has, on a number of events for the reason that early 2000s, created such collections, and OTT’s signatures are stitched into this lifelong oeuvre. With give attention to development and flexibility, draping anchored the gathering heavy on ivory, black, navy, taupe, and burgundy; embroidery and inventive prints punctuated the designs, and a line of equipment. “OTT simplifies our signature components, making them the hero of the piece with out overwhelming the general design. This pared-down strategy offers wearers the liberty to fashion the clothes in varied methods, making them wardrobe staples that may endure season after season,” says Tarun, including that the label speaks “a unique language of India Fashionable”.

Mannequin walks the ramp in the course of the present of Nexa Presents OTT by Tarun Tahiliani
| Picture Credit score:
Good Shadows / FDCI x Lakme Vogue Week / RISE Worldwide

Tarun was not the one designer eager on a quieter expression of event put on. Antar-Agni by Ujjawal Dubey juxtaposed sharp silhouettes and draping in his Two-Confronted assortment. The 44 ensembles comprised separates crafted from cottons and silks in addition to jacquard, handwoven in Varanasi. Pintucked surfaces and finely layered elaborations elevated the darkish shades which went from black and charcoal to forest inexperienced and purple. “Now we have achieved plenty of deconstruction in steel and tissue, and dipped in gray as a result of I wished to get again to our core in a stronger format,” says Ujjawal, who’s marking 10 years of his label. In a unique tackle understated event put on, Pankaj & Nidhi’s Westernwear line, Loop provided kimono-inspired jackets, cocoon skirts, latticed gilets and different separates in stable colors, offset with tonal elaborations referencing the infinity loop.

Mannequin walks the ramp throughout Abraham & Thakore present on the Lakme Vogue Week 2024
| Picture Credit score:
Good Shadows / FDCI x Lakme Vogue Week / RISE Worldwide

Experiments with textures

This season, designers provided myriad methods to work with textures through the use of methods as assorted as embroidery, crochet, elaborations, patchwork, quilting, knitting, and appliqué. Menswear label MARGN, which was a part of the season’s GenNext cohort, offered a group rife with knitted and crochet appliqués, quilted knit vests, and even bangles. Kolkata-based designer Richa Khemka utilized a mosaic sample on her clothes, utilizing 3D elaborations, beads, sequins, and appliqué. Designer Payal Pratap’s showcase Kiss From A Rose offered her inspiration — childhood reminiscences of her mom’s backyard — in a number of varieties together with a textured patchwork iteration that comes throughout as pixelated, cross-stitch blooms. “We created a sample utilizing small sq. patches of materials to create it. I wished to showcase the flower as an summary sample,” says Payal, who moreover experimented with sequins and elaborations for the gathering.

Mannequin walks the ramp throughout Payal Pratap present on the Lakme Vogue Week 2024
| Picture Credit score:
Good Shadows / FDCI x Lakme Vogue Week / RISE Worldwide

Texture was additionally the protagonist for designer Ankur Verma, whose label Til was winner of The Highlight competitors this season. His assortment, titled Mirage, offered painterly surfaces created utilizing quite a lot of textile surfaces and embroidery, with a definite inspiration of Impressionist artwork. “Lots of people have in contrast the textiles to landscapes and galaxies, however my thought was to actually do textures and depart them open to interpretation,” says Ankur. Among the many standouts had been a line of clothes whose textures resembled woollen sweaters at first look; they had been the truth is katran (leftover textiles) that had been knitted collectively by the artisanal group.

Mannequin walks the ramp throughout R|Elan Round Design Problem
| Picture Credit score:
Good Shadows / FDCI x Lakme Vogue Week / RISE Worldwide

Materials improvements

The sustainability discourse in trend has led to a surge within the improvement of assorted supplies that may exchange the usage of virgin sources. On day one, pegged as Sustainable Vogue Day, Abraham & Thakore showcased an array of such supplies developed from waste of their assortment, Discovering Magnificence. Designers David Abraham and Rakesh Thakore have lengthy used discarded X-rays to create black and white laser-cut sequins; this season, they added cassette tapes, polyethylene trash baggage, empty packets of chips, silver foil, and burlap to the combo. Woven into organzas and silk, or reduce and formed as sequins to be used on saris and clothes.

Mannequin walks the ramp throughout R|Elan Round Design Problem
| Picture Credit score:
Good Shadows / FDCI x Lakme Vogue Week / RISE Worldwide

The Round Design Problem, in line with its design parameters, featured various new materials interventions. Gautam Malik, founding father of the label Jaggery, upcycled waste from the car and defence sectors — seatbelts, cargo belts, decommissioned military parachutes, ex-army canvas and previous military tents — into clothes and baggage. Japanese designer Tsang Fan Yu’s designs included classic kimonos and life jackets whereas A Blunt Story, an Indian footwear label by Chandni Batra, showcased its proprietary supplies that includes bio-based and pure supplies corresponding to cork, rice husk, bamboo, oil from soy and palm, in addition to material waste, post-industrial leather-based waste and recycled pet waste.

Ananya Panday with Rohit Bal
| Picture Credit score:
Particular Association

Again with a bang

With main designer showcases and bigger than life settings, Lakmé Vogue Week’s grand finale is at all times a well-attended affair. Anticipation this season was even increased, with couturier Rohit Bal presenting his new assortment Kaynaat (which means the universe). In a press assertion, Rohit described the gathering as “a journey by the wonders of Nature, celebrating the bloom of life and sweetness,” thematically aligned with present sponsor Lakmé’s Ethereal Bloom make-up line. A number of ivory ensembles opened the present, as the gathering reiterated his signatures in silhouettes and colors, in addition to motifs corresponding to flowers — embroidered or printed, in a play of proportions on jackets and lehengas. Lush surroundings and gilded particulars evoked Baroque aesthetics and fairy tales; elephants, deer, toucans, and cranes sharing the canvas of material with the solar and moon, vines and branches. Actor and Lakmé model ambassador Ananya Panday performed showstopper, in a black and gold cape and lehengacrammed with roses.

Kaynaat by Rohit Bal
| Picture Credit score:
Particular Association

Nostalgia underlined each side of the present, from the clothes’s archival high quality to the presentation. That is Rohit’s first runway showcase since his important cardiac issues final yr. Sitting within the entrance row by the length of the present, the designer seemed fragile however broke right into a dance when he walked up on stage to take a bow. This jig has at all times been a part of his runway presence, an expression of his joie de vivre. However this time it was additionally an act of resilience.

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