There are designers who become instantly famous and get invited to present their creations at prestigious fashion weeks and trade shows almost immediately after founding their own houses. Things worked differently instead for Gaurav Gupta.
After graduating from London's Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, Gupta founded his label in 2005 in India. He grew his business with his brother, opening boutiques in major Indian cities including New Delhi and Mumbai. But things weren't easy considering that, while he used in his designs Indian craftsmanship techniques, his collections were always concept-driven and he also tended to diverge from more traditional Indian styles and palettes.
As the years passed, though, he managed to find a way to rein in his more conceptual side and come up with what he defines "wearable concepts" (including his personal take on the sari gown that he updated with draped, knotted and plaited motifs).
A favourite among the Bollywood elite and Indian socialites, he has more recently been expanding in the West: American retailer Neiman Marcus is set to offer the brand's designs, and a variety of stars, including Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion and Lizzo, have already appeared at red carpet events wearing his creations (Gupta conceives the chances he got of dressing celebrities not as commercial opportunities, but as "cultural collaborations"). The designer was also selected for the first time this year to show on the official Haute Couture calendar in Paris.
There were different inspirations behind his S/S 23 collection, but the starting point was the "shunya". The Sanskrit word indicates the concept of nothingness and Indian scholars from the 5th - 2nd century used it to refer to zero.
Shunya is the path to infinity and this philosophical concept, combined with the designer's will to explore space and time, resulted in a series of sculptural greige pieces made with hand-loomed and hand-woven tissue fabrics characterized by graphic architectural volumes with swirls of fabrics enveloping the models' bodies, extending or altering their silhouettes.
Some of these looks seemed to defy gravity, creating suspended waves above the models' heads or wing-like structures.
Infinity was represented by a double dress (Gupta also makes bridal-wear and you can bet that this look will become a favourite at same-sex marriages, but it could also be a great idea for twins...), a conjoined design donned by two models holding hands and representing unity in a sort of tornado cloud of swooping fabrics perfectly symbolizing shunya as a moment of restlessness, a place when the old no longer exists but the new has not emerged and everything is in potentia.
The subtle palette then made way to a brighter one with bright blue gowns paired with matching legging-boots. The colour may have been a reference to covellite (also known as covelline), a rare copper sulfide indigo blue mineral. Another inspiration behind this collection is indeed volcanic erosion.
The latter seemed clearer in black dresses and suits with nude-illusion tulle inserts and embellishments strategically placed: in some gowns the graphic black lines looked like scribblings, but in those designs in which the black revealed yellow or gold nuances underneath, the effect called to mind intrusive igneous rocks formed when magma cools slowly beneath Earth's surface and crystallizes.
The gold or lime sequins breaking through the black reminded of peridotite crystals (consisting of small crystals of olivine, pyroxene and hornblende) breaking into rocks.
The neon yellow dresses with tubular elements covered in sequins were instead a reference to the kundalini snake, a symbol representing the spiritual power and enlightenment that lies within all people.
As a whole, it was a promising first show, but some editing is needed: gowns in stretchy silver or black fabrics were unnecessary and risked of cheapening the collection, drawing attention away from more intricate, sculptural and architectural designs.
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