Inside Lakme Fashion Week: A Tear-filled, Standing Ovation for ‘Gudda,’ and 3 Designers to Watch
Coming to a close Sunday night, with a standing ovation for the grand finale of the Lakme Fashion Week in partnership with the Fashion Design Council of India by designer and couturier Rohit Bal, was perhaps the most emotionally charged evening in India’s fashion week history.
Tears rolled down freely as designers, models and longtime friends watched the frail designer escorted on to the ramp after a grand display of his easily recognizable motifs. Full-length, flowing, layered, tiered outfits and his longtime favorite — roses — rampant and wild upon the dresses.
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Months of poor health that preceded this show have had the fashion fraternity uniting in unexpected ways in support for the designer, popularly known as Gudda.
The music too was moving and bittersweet, with a heart-rending violin rendition as guests settled into their seats at the Imperial hotel, a rare location for a fashion event, with its history of elegance located on Janpath, in the heart of the city. It was lively, with joyous pop hits for the show itself bringing what many viewers said was an unexpected closure to the fashion week.
“It was nostalgia, love, wonder and an appreciation for the way Gudda has stood by the fashion fraternity for so many years; the inspiration he has evoked, sadness to see him so weak, and such absolute joy to have him return to the work that he has loved, to give us a completely unexpected glimpse of his creativity,” a fellow fashion designer told WWD.
Gudda blew kisses to the audience, shared hugs with his celebrity showstopper and the face of beauty brand House of Lakme, Ananya Panday, and stopped to dance to the music that continued even as his collection Kaaynaat: A Bloom in the Universe, completed its run. The collection itself was recognizably Rohit Bal, with its grandeur. Bal has long been known for his boldness — outspoken in general with unapologetic and vibrantly loud motifs. This time, there were swirling capes, which brought with them the sense of celebration, of life.
“Kaaynaat was a journey through the wonders of nature, celebrating the bloom of life and beauty,” Bal said about his collection.
Escorting him to the stage were the two stalwarts who have combined to hold the fashion weeks together in recent years — Jaspreet Chandhok, group vice president, Reliance Brands Ltd., and Sunil Sethi, chairman Fashion Design Council of India, who brought in the new era of combined fashion weeks with Lakme Fashion Week in partnership with FDCI, the calendar space shared between Mumbai in the early part of the year, and in New Delhi in the second half.
Speaking about the finale, Chandhok said simply, “We’ve watched his finale for so many years, and this time there were a lot of variables at play. We had to be sensitive about his health. It was very emotional through it all.”
Emerging from this season were also several designers who are clearly on the radar for fashion watchers, and for buyers as they emerge through growing celebrity, through awards, through the early process of breaking boundaries.
Aneeth Arora, Péro
Easily summarized by some as quirky and experimental, and by others as all about fabrics and textiles, Péro has taken on some diverse worlds.
“We have always been able to cater to both our markets,” Aneeth Arora, the founder of the brand, told WWD. “We also have people who are takers of our classic fabrics. For those who are experimental there is always the new theme and the variety.”
Péro means “to wear” in Marwari, the local language of Rajasthan.
“Over the last 15 years, we have understood what are the refinements needed to be on par with other fabrics. In a simple example, we started working with wool from Gujarat; we got feedback that it was too rough, then we started yarn invention. Same with kulu wool, after treatment after using the right kind of wool. We find the traditional and handmade and find ways to make it innovative,” she said.
Already retailing in India in 25-30 stores, and in 35 countries across the world, Arora is modest about the kind of retail the brand has achieved. “Many of the stores we are in are very niche stores, boutique stores across the world, tucked away in holiday destinations where people go looking for hand-picked options,” she said. She doesn’t write off big retail: “If there are big retailers and are carrying luxury, it would be good to be there too,” she said, talking about the intensive process for handloom and handcrafted products. “It’s not only because the prices are high, that it becomes luxury. Lots of work goes into it and that makes it luxury.” The brand has more than 300 people working directly, and more than 3,000 indirectly with weaving and embroidery from all over the country.
The brand saw the spotlight this time as the opening show for the fashion week, in an offsite show in collaboration with Japanese company Sanrio, to celebrate the 50th birthday of Hello Kitty, who is seeing celebrations around the world.
Speaking about the collection, which set the tone for the fashion week, she said, “Péro always had a little bit of nostalgia and playfulness in everything we do because we know we had to do justice it. The perception about Hello Kitty is it’s about kids, we made women’s and menswear; I feel we all have the child within us looking for an element of fun. We laid it out on a platter.”
Ritwik Khanna, Rkive City
Ritwik Khanna’s two-year-old label Rkive City label won the Circular Design Challenge, a highlight of the second day of the fashion week.
The challenge has a mix of partners, from R|Elan, the next-gen fabric brand of Reliance Industries Limited, and the United Nations in India, to global entities like the British Council, Istituto Marangoni, and Redress.
It was not just the brand story, but his clarity and vision that set it apart.
“This was the first runway show for the brand, I was looking down and walking, I didn’t know how to work on a ramp,” Khanna said, describing the anxiety and the elation as it emerged. “I was confident about our clothes, our casting, presenting the creations in front of the jury, and being able to talk to people who can really cross question you, those who know that working towards circularity is really so important.”
Khanna studied fashion business management from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and returned to India during the pandemic. He got interested in textile waste and studied the potential and the fallout. “We are addressing a big problem of textile waste, treating textile waste, to collaborate with social impact pieces; none of the things we did was for the competition.”
Khanna opened the first store in March. “It came as a place of exploration,” he explained. It’s a studio with an atelier at the back, the Indian market is very important for us and is at the heart of it; India knows how to take care of the waste, now with fast fashion there is a change of narrative.”
Ankur Verma, Til
Ankur Verma was already on the radar, but emerged more strongly after winning The Spotlight by Nexa this season. His innovative, textured designs stood out within the award showcase, which focused on how fashion transforms into a medium for expressive storytelling.
“I was exploring layering, textures, patterns and colors, unveiling the mirages with masks and how they create layers of emotion,” he explained. His background, working in theater, studying art and joining the National Institute of Fashion Technology in Kolkata, followed by a four-and-a-half-year stint working with fashion maestro Sabyasachi, set the tone for the brand, which appears to have incorporated all these experiences, culminating in a whimsical style of his own.
Having been shortlisted in the new designers category at the fashion week two years back, this was Verma’s fifth collection; his brand is three years old and featured 42 looks this season. The brand stocks in multibrand stores in India and in a few internationally, including in Singapore and London. As Sunil Sethi described it, there were “diverse and innovative presentations from participants nationwide” but Til just caught the attention. “We enjoyed seeing his collection come to life on the runway that inspired a new wave of designers to shape the future of fashion,” he said.
Others described his collection as “honest and personal” — the same way Verma described the experience.
“It wasn’t fashion week, it was very personal. Just like Rohit Bal’s show in the end….everyone was there for Rohit, not for fashion week.”
Did he too, shed a tear?
“Everybody cried,” he said. “And I had a tear of happiness too, like a kid seeing those roses and white, flowing dresses; we have grown up seeing his styles emerge, and here there were larger than life.”
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