MUMBAI, India — The first fashion show in India by British brand Vivienne Westwood on Tuesday was a study in beloved Indian fabrics like khadi and chanderi, among other materials, for the 60-piece collection, which also showed a selection of spring 2025 Vivienne Westwood looks.
The event was created in partnership with the Department of Textiles, government of Maharashtra and Viz Fashion School Pvt Ltd.
The location was an icon of the country as well — the Gateway of India, a much-loved monument facing the Arabian Sea, and right in front of the Taj hotel, lit up and full of grandeur in itself.
Coming after Christian Dior’s show at the same location in March 2023, using the embroidery of the Mumbai-based Chanakya School of Craft, the Westwood show could be a further indication that Western brands may finally be learning that customization and inclusivity are the magic keys to India — and other countries.
Yet the evening was a study in both contradictions and concord: the location was iconic — but the Gateway of India was covered in scaffolding, still holding the backdrop gracefully, but it’s beauty marred. Dressed in eveningwear, the audience sat waiting for the show to begin amid the heat and humidity, as well as a passing rain shower.
A look in the show.
Yet the biggest point of concord was simple: the celebration of India’s rich artisanal textiles.
Khadi was the material promoted by Mahatma Gandhi as a tool of freedom — often rough and created in shapeless silhouettes. It has come a long way since then, with more than 150 variations and forms.
Westwood’s capsule collection of khadi and chanderi silks celebrated the hand woven fabrics and was sourced from Khadi India and Aaranya Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh in central India.
The materials and the colors were vibrant and vivid — sky blue cotton, vibrant purple raw silk, black cotton, stunning whites in both muslin cottons and silks, sand-colored Muga silks and stone-colored pashmina wool. Each style was meant to highlight the fabric, using sculpted, draped or a finely tailored finish.
“Vivienne Westwood has long championed craftsmanship and heritage and have partnered for decades with local industries and artisans in the U.K. as well as in Europe and Africa, and are now proud to partner with the artisanal hand-crafted textile industry of India for this show,” the brand said in a statement.
Among those who wore Vivienne Westwood and added to the excitement of Tuesday’s event were Bollywood actors like Kareena Kapoor Khan, Janhvi Kapoor, Aditya Roy Kapur, Bhumi Pednekar and Manushi Chillar.
Mukesh Ambani’s daughter-in-law Radhika Merchant Ambani wore a corset from the Westwood archives with a custom-made sari, personifying the bridge between cultures and ideas, while fashion designer Manish Malhotra wore the brand too.
A look in the show.
Carlo D’Amario, chief executive officer of the brand, told WWD that “it was like a dream come true for him” to show there, having visited India years before. “Today we celebrate the khadi fabric for Mahatma Gandhi,” he said, adding that the purity of the fabric was to be noted in a world where there is a lot of “artificial change.”
“That is the pity of fashion, the pity of luxury,” he said, pointing out that “the customer is changing, the way to promote fashion and the product itself was changing.”
Vivienne Westwood passed away in 2022 and creative director and widower of the designer, Andreas Kronthaler, was not present at the event.
“It wasn’t just a fashion show, but rather a concept, a story, a dream, and brought to life by the CEO of the brand, Carlo d’Amario, and us together with the support of the government of Maharashtra,” Dr. Arti Rai, founder and director of Vivz Fashion School, told WWD. “I got in touch with Carlo two years back and asked if he would like to do a show in India. He was clear that he wanted to do khadi, and at the Gateway of India. It was before the Dior show,” she said, detailing the process of getting in touch with the khadi board, sourcing the fabric and the long process of permissions.
It isn’t that Indian designers hadn’t been trying to upscale the khadi look. They include Rina Dhaka, who has worked with it for years, and is a board member of the FDCI. Maharani Priyadarshini Raje Scindia, the founder of Aaranya, worked with Westwood to source the chanderi. “They wanted to know and understand our love for the fabric — there were immediate meetings with weavers and artisans, there was an agenda and we worked with them not just for branding but rather to put money directly in the hands of weavers,” she said.
She emphasized the importance of geography to understand textiles better. “Chanderi itself has a GI tag, it is already a place, a history, a town [in Madhya Pradesh],” she said speaking about the sourcing of the fabric. “Only if we understand the geography of the textile can we fully understand it and the weavers and artisan who make it.
“For this collection we went for the more contemporary, plainer textiles rather than those with the motifs and borders, that wasn’t their aesthetic, completely natural chanderi which was as pure as it could be. Then they took it and discussed dyeing techniques — pigmented dyes, vegetable dyes so they could create the best with the fabric.
“I never knew that we could manipulate the textile like this — we don’t get it in Western drapery, but there were stunning gowns created, inspired by the Victorian age as well. Chanderi is not an easy textile to work with, to see it put in those shapes was very interesting,” she said.
A look in the show.
While not everyone thought the silhouettes worked, the main point of the evening was pride in the use of Indian fabrics.
As actress Kareena Kapoor Khan said on stage after the event: “Indian craftsmanship and textiles have always had a huge impact globally and its even greater to see an absolute dynamo pioneer like Vivienne Westwood come here do its iconic show, collaborate to use our khadi and other Indian textiles.
“It’s a very proud moment, and it’s just the beginning,” she said.
Brands may well be looking at India with better, and more cooperative, intent, analysts noted, but it may not quite be enough.
“I think luxury in India is in a very selective space, and the footprint for fashion is very small — it is still accessories, beauty and fragrances that are driving the market. It’s a good spin to add to the customer offering — you are able to test market about consumer sensibilities,” said Pankaj Renjhen, joint managing director of consulting firm Anarock Retail. ”There are brands like Sabyasachi which are trying to go international and appeal to the world keeping the Indian’ness at its core. It’s going both ways. But it’s a long journey.”
D’Amario appeared to know this. “The thing is, we need to do something together in the future,” he said, speaking of upcoming retail in India “This was just a taste of the brand.”
As for when that might happen, he said ambiguously, “Very soon.”
