Sustainable ways to create surreal fashion

PUJA GUPTA

New Delhi, Oct 14 (IANSlife) Day 2 of the Lakme Fashion Week x FDCI was dedicated to sustainable fashion. Several designers presented their collections, brought to shape through eco-friendly practices.

Industry veterans like Anju Modi, Abraham and Thakore, and Satya Paul to young talents like Diksha Khanna, Swatti Kapoor and Rina Singh launched their latest line created with environmentally conscious thoughts and requirements.

Designer duo Abraham & Thakore, who marked 30 years in the industry, launched 'Time Travel: Past, Present and Future' collection that included their signature black and white designs. The Autumn-Winter'22 collection saw heirloom textiles reimagined into designs twisted for modern-day Indians.

The collection included the double ikat handwoven silk houndstooth saree in black and amla acquired by The Victoria & Albert Museum in London, presented in 2011 for their collection called 'Masculine and Feminine'. The collection was inspired by classic men's fabrics and aimed at creating a sharp look for a new generation of women.

Alongside, they also gave a sneak-peek of the Spring-Summer '23 collection and a few of their archival pieces. The range extended to daywear, workwear, and occasion-wear in colours like sage, carmine, earthy beige, and brown, splashed with a hint of shimmer. There were saris, textured and 3D jackets, kurtas, kaftans, tunics, palazzos and churidars in fabrics like organic cotton, habutayi, and mashru silks, lenzing eco Vero, and Tencel. Additionally, there were co-ord sets, shirts, jackets, vests, and pants, loungewear and accessories for men.

Anju Modi's collection "Damayanti" created in association of TENCEL fiber was inspired by the paintings of Indian artist Raja Ravi Varma. The outfits reflected the western techniques and styles used by the artist to paint his muse Dayamanti. Anju used TENCEL's lyocell and modal fibers to create a line of sarees, embellished with hand embroidery, traditional blouses, embellished dupattas, dhoti pants and other occasion wears.

Satya Paul's collection "A Stranger Thinks" focused on athleisure along with formal wears. There were clean and contemporary silhouettes in fabrics like satin, organza, cotton, viscose and silk. The colour palette was inspired by colours of the sky, space and cosmos. There were prints inspired by space, water, planets, stars, clouds, deep sea divers, astronauts, marine life, fauna, flora, animals, buildings, machine elements and even iconic global monuments.

Rina's collection "It's Only a Dream" took inspiration from the story of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. The designer has experimented with an exploration of block prints on hand-woven fabrics like cotton and cotton silk, Kota, linen and blends, Jamdani incorporated into cotton and cotton silk silhouettes. Soft, vibrant colours and patterns that moved from gingham checks to multicoloured ones and stripes were used for overlays and layering.

Smocking, pin tucks, fragile laces and embroidery were seen on skirts and dresses, soft summer jackets, pretty peplum blouses, sheer robes, feisty peasant tunics, along with sheer smock dresses for women. For men's wear options were also spotted on the runway that included white shirts, biker's jackets with pastel stripes worn with comfy trousers.

Winner of the R|Elan Circular Design Challenge, 'Pieux' by Pratyush Kumar brought a great sustainable fashion experience on the ramp. His collection was made using of deconstructed and reconstructed old clothes.

Inspired by the incredible world of life under the microscope, Pieux showcased the theme of Illusion in their collection at the event. To create illusion in pleats they worked on the concept of lenticular print. The collection captures the details and intricacy visible under the microscope through different techniques like pleating, weaving, eco-friendly digital printing and 3D printing. The brand opted for materials like CARTEX -- 100 per cent upcycled carpet waste handloom textile, R|Elan Greengold (100 per cent recycled polyester made from post-consumer PET bottles), Greengold + Feelfresh Fusion Fabric (100 per cent recycled polyester with added anti-microbial properties), GRS certified recycled nylon, GRS certified recycled Polyester and organic cotton to create garments as well as footwear. There were oversized sweaters, kimono, buttonless jacket with wild prints and colours.

Swatti unveiled a line of fluid, flowing women's wear inspired by the colourful fruit pomegranate and and Greek Goddess of Love � Venus. Titled 'Venus', the line was designed with recycled, upcycled material to minimise the carbon footprint.

She used chanderi, khadi, and mul in easy relaxed silhouettes. Pintucks and pleating were seen in garments with surface texturing, block prints, hand embroidery and bead work. There were kurtas, tunics, skirts, dupattas, pants, dresses, shirts and a variety of overlays and scarves in a wide selection of colours.

The brand 'Studio Medium' by Riddhi Jain experimented with Jamdani and Bandhani weaves to create the 'Jamban Journal 2.0' collection.

The designer took inspiration from the work of artists - Ichiko Kubota and Jeremy Gardiner to bring to life the traditional 6-yard drape, tunics, jackets, scarves and kurtas dappled with the Bandhani craft.

Designer Diksha Khanna's 'Fluid 2023' zeroed in on natural dyed hand-woven denim and linen in shades of indigo, rubai orange and arabica brown, merged with ivory and beige. The intriguing 3D ladder hems on coat lapels were inspired by the concept of empty stairwells. She used hand woven Chanderis, rugged khadi denim for numerous mix and match options with waistcoats, robes, shorts, slim pencil skirts, comfy jackets and cropped blouses. The collection also included mini coin bags and denim backpacks, done by the designer for the first time.

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