India's Fashion Decade

How has India’s fashion vocabulary evolved and grown in the last ten years? As we stand at the turning point of this decade, we trace the big style milestones that have shaped how Indians engage with fashion today

- Bandana Tewari

The last decade has seen the emergence of a unique signature that is sparse on frills but abundant in abstract and academic expressions in fashion. Modern Indian Minimalism—unadulterated by overwhelming embellishments, the hitherto obvious hallmark of most Indian designers—is a language that relies on pattern-cutting, experimentation with yarns, geometry of shapes, non-figurative design garnishes and unorthodox traditional techniques.

FASHION OF QUIETUDE

What makes this movement uniquely Indian is the prominent role Indian textiles play in the minimalist designers’ practice. The resurgence of handmade textiles of India in fashion design—with their invaluable cultural, social and environmental narratives—is what makes this industry exciting today. Indian textiles give designers the tactility to explore the relationship between wearer and weave. These young designers, who graduated from pedigreed design schools across the world, use a unique language of design provocations and interventions, to build their oeuvres. They challenge us to shift our perceptions and constantly question our relationship with clothes. Ruchika Sachdeva of Bodice, winner of the prestigious International Woolmark Prize 2017/2018 has a penchant, for instance, for finding a symbiosis between disparate inspirations and techniques. Her Woolmark collection took on the 18th century costumes of Indian nautch girls but designed them using modern and minimalist menswear tailoring. Using natural fabrics including hand-woven textiles by artisans in Uttar Pradesh, Antar Agni’s Ujjawal Dubey is adept at splicing and draping monochromatic fabrics; and by almost completely eliminating surface ornamentation he achieves an overall look that is reminiscent of zen enthusiasts, but with oodles of swag.