The term and concept of “non-places” – airports, train stations, shopping malls, hotel lobbies and the like – were coined in 1992 by anthropologist Marc Augé. Thirty years later, modern society’s daily life continues to commonly deal with the tedium of transitorily.
Like many enduring the experience, Dhruv Kapoor often finds solace looking at strangers, perusing their behavior, expressions, attitudes, and poses hiding their stories of love, angst, happiness, sadness, or joy.
His fall collection started from those random encounters, in an attempt at distilling the overarching in-transit, no-more-at-origin, not-yet-at-destination feeling.
“Our idea was to avoid any clear destination or context to the garments, so it’s all playing with tensions… we also wanted to reflect the aspect of being in a state of in-between,” he said.
Frayed baggy denim and crinkle-pressed overshirts conveyed a worn-in feel; the lightly padded, floor-sweeping duster coat paired with jeans and studded ballet flats read cool, travel-ready attire; a checkered T-shirt had the graphic’s draft layers left visible and it was paired with jeans featuring an unfinished ramage-like embroidery, ditto for those on a midi tartan skirt paired with a pointy-shouldered blue shirt; bias-cut shirtdresses with multiple prints running vertically had glitch-like, pixelated white portions.
There was no clear distinction between occasions of use, in a clash of street and glam that not always found its footing. The designer characterized the looks as “unresolved,” which surely can be an antidote to today’s perfection-chasing obsession.
