Once upon a time there was a village kid who was very devoted to Lord Shiva. One day the child went on a picnic with his schoolfellows on board of a bus.
In the middle of the jungle the bus broke down and the kids suddenly found themselves immersed in the interminable heat of the Indian summer surrounded by wild animals such as panthers, leopards and pythons.
The child started praying to Lord Shiva and encouraged his friends to do the same. Touched by their prayers, the powerful and fascinating deity of the Hindu Trinity poured a bit of water from the River Ganges flowing from his head into the bus carburettor and the children happily started again their journey, safely reaching their picnic spot.
This may be a cute and optimistic tale, but you won’t find it in any anthology of short stories. The “bus tale” is indeed the main inspiration behind one dress by young Indian designer Ankur Gupta.
A Fashion and Textile graduate from New Delhi’s National Institute of Fashion Technology, Gupta recently designed a collection entitled “Ambiguous Desires of a Child”.
Each outfit – mainly inspired by three themes, children, dreams and interpretations – is based on a story in which the surreal side of Hindu gods is explored and mixed with a healthy dose of humour and irony.
The broken yellow bus, praying children and jungle in Gupta’s story appear in one of his designs, a dress with yellow sequinned epaulettes that features a sort of mesmerising dreamy print of jungle animals and multicoloured butterflies.
The tale of a Rajasthani kid dreaming of owning an aquarium and a pet fish inspired instead a dress with three-dimensional embroideries representing fish and black waves, while the visitation upon a sceptical child of a group of Hindu gods riding their vehicles – animals or birds representing their forces – became the main theme behind a mini-dress characterised by a tortoise shell-like silhouette, an evocative piece that calls to mind Vishnu’s incarnation.
Gupta’s designs are rather peculiar pieces as they are sporty yet elegant, playful but wearable and filled with a dynamic mixture of glamour and humour. The interview that follows is an extract from a longer piece I did for Dazed Digital.
What inspired this collection?
Ankur Gupta: While working on this collection I’ve been thinking about how kids perceive things, how they think without boundaries, ask fantastically bizarre questions to adults and even have the power to turn their requests to God. I feel fashion designers should do exactly the same, creating without limiting themselves. My garments feature a lot of embroideries, textiles and fabrics and therefore offer a lot to explore. I often feel more like an artist, almost a painter while I design.
Where do you usually start from when you create a collection?
Ankur Gupta: I start with a thought, empty and meaningless, and the possibilities that ensue from it. I then develop keywords through a careful research and create a story around those words. Sometimes the story doesn’t go where I initially thought of, but I let my story or character take me wherever it wants while I simultaneously transform it into textures, embroideries, embellishments and appliquéd fabrics. Fabrics are also another important aspect of my work. I treat my fabrics like human beings and try to ‘connect’ with them. I sometimes enhance the quality of a fabric through different processes. In my designs – even in the most avant-garde ones – silhouettes and fabrics support each other and the former are basically an embodiment of my thoughts. For this collection I chose pure fabrics such as silk since they enhanced the look of the garments and helped me expressing my thoughts in a better way.
While still studying you worked with Swash, Caroline Charles and Manish Arora: what’s the most important lesson you learnt while working as assistant designer for them?
Ankur Gupta: Albert Einstein once stated ‘The only source of knowledge is experience’ and I have gained a lot of knowledge from these experiences which definitely helped me taking out a talent for designing that I had buried deep inside myself.
Is there a celebrity you would like to see wearing your designs?
Ankur Gupta: Queen Elizabeth! There is a certain aura around her which I feel is good, so why not? Then Daphne Guinness, Lady Gaga, M.I.A, Björk, Aishwarya Rai, Shilpa Shetty, Mischa Barton, Kate Perry…the list is endless at the moment! I guess I design for a dreamer who is also an achiever.
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