Hybrid Fashion Is An Unexpected Meeting Of Cultures

A variety of home-grown, hybrid fashion is an unexpected meeting of cultures

- Shriya Zamindar

The most fascinating aspect of the mixing of two cultures is the new perspectives that are formed. It is a cultural collaboration of sorts. Not the brand deal variety, just identities from distances near and far fusing together to form a new persona. Experimenting with their diverse values, these designers bring in a new level of awareness on heritage and traditions that ultimately feed into their clothes.

COME TOGETHER

The traditional sensibility of French couture brought New Delhi-born designer Hemant Sagar and French designer Didier Lecoanet’s future ventures into alignment. Their paths crossed while studying at the world’s pioneering institute, the École de la Chambre Syndicale de Couture in Paris, where they both specialised in couture. It was in Paris, in 1981, that they opened the doors to their couture house, Lecoanet Hemant, on the popular 8th Arrondissement on rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré.

“I was a dressmaking apprentice in the 70s,” recalls Sagar, who shifted to Germany with his family as a child. He worked in the blouse manufacturing business and later moved to Paris to learn the craft of his current trade at the prestigious couture institute. Lecoanet, born in Chaumont, in the East of France, studied fine arts and worked in advertising before he found his calling. “It did not take me long to realise that my heart lay in dressmaking,” recounts Lecoanet. Despite their diverse backgrounds, they bonded over their similar vision of fashion.

Lecoanet Hemant also reflects the designers’ synchronicity. “It is the coming together of our heritage, lived experiences, and a common vision for authenticity,” he says.