The 2023 GQ Fasion Awards

This year, fashion's unfiltered freaky era met traditional menswear in a spectacular head-on collision. These are the designers, brands, and trends that rose above the rest in the sublime wreckage.

BREAKTHROUGH DESIGNER OF THE YEAR

ABHISHEK SHARMA

Abhishek Sharma is one of India's buzziest new designers. He has a flair for playing with contemporary textiles and silhouettes and turning them into visual delights. The Delhi-based designer's recent reef-inspired collection dived into the underwater world, interpreted through prints on men's co-ord jacket sets and textures created by laser-cutting, couching, and adding embellishments dipped in the tones of coral, aqua, and shell white. Sharma is one to keep an eye on. -SALONI DHRUV

BEST COUTURE SHOW OF THE YEAR

ΑΝΑΜΙΚΑ KHANNA

"Love" was the underlying theme of Anamika Khanna's couture show, with the designer converting the Durbar Hall at the Taj Palace, Delhi, into a mysterious space reminiscent of a dark, mossy forest. The collection itself fused heritage and modernity by mixing traditional textiles with layers of textures to create contemporary silhouettes in the celebrated designer's signature egg-shell colour palette. Khanna also worked with her son Viraj, who is an artist, to transform his abstract works into patchwork jackets, capes, and bandhgala sets. -S.D.

FASHION INNOVATOR OF THE YEAR

RIMZIM DADU

For her critically acclaimed show this year, Rimzim Dadu re-engineered the traditional patola weave with metallic cords, lace, and mesh to replicate the ripples of water. This extraordinary innovation was only the latest move by the Delhi-based designer, who has woven a niche for herself by experimenting with textiles, techniques, and form. Well known for recasting silhouettes by mixing materials like steel wire and cord, and turning them into structural saris, tuxedos, and bomber jackets, Dadu also opened up her first menswear store in Delhi earlier this year. -S.D.