Dhruv Kapoor presented perhaps his most accomplished collection to date, looking at fashion codes from his native India through a subtler, yet more powerful lens.
Pinned to his moodbard backstage were candid, streetstyle pictures of perfect unknowns taken around urban and rural India: A girl adjusting her creased dupatta head covering, a man in a traditional workwear suit seated on doorsteps, a boy carrying marigold garlands.
They helped anchor the collection in reality, adding a more intimate spin and showing a softer and more mature side of the brand. Tailoring was more directional, beadwork – one of the brand’s signature embroideries – streamlined and more sophisticated, prints skewing toward India’s rich heritage rather than fantasyland.
The show opened with a moody-colored, floral printed fluid suit with a belted blazer sported in variations by men and women alike, followed by shirt jackets in a creased and slightly shimmering fabric paired with sartorial trousers. The traditional sari was reinvented into sophisticated skirts and tops draped around the body for women, who also dared mustard miniskirts with woolen shirt jackets covered in jasmine-shaped floral embroideries. The latter appeared on revealing minidresses and mermaid gowns grounded by crisp cotton shirts with rounded sleeves – and the ubiquitous hybrid Mary-Jane-Oxford shoes.
“I wanted to go back to the root of the brand and why we even started the brand, and that’s what we wanted to share this season. It was all about re-imagining and revisiting the rich sartorial heritage, the craft, the culture of India, but to reimagine it for the contemporary audience, for the world today,” the designer said backstage.
