Gen Next’s fantastic five

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The stage is set for Lakmé Fashion Week Winter/Festive 2013 and like every year, this time too five talented designers from across the country will be showcasing their creations. The Gen Next category has previously launched names like Aneeth Arora, Nachiket Barve, Masaba, Swapnil Shinde, Rahul Mishra and Nitin Bal Chauhan in the past few seasons. This year the selected designers will get an opportunity to be mentored by designer Aki Narula.
The five fresh names who will be entering the world of fashion are — Rixi Bhatia and Jayesh Sachdev, Pronoy Kapoor, Aditi Holani, Nitin Chawla, and Aiman Agha and Armaan Randhawa. These budding talents from Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai reveal more about their collection themes for next season and how this platform will give them an edge over the others.
Delhi-based designer Nitin Chawla mentions that his collection ‘Tokyo Warrior’ is a theme that depicts the imaginative story of a samurai warrior who lands in today’s modern world. He says, “The transition of time is what this collection is all about, which is depicted through the clothes, an amalgamation of warrior outfits and today’s modern world clothing. The collection starts with avant-garde pieces and moves on to more refined pieces. Men in this collection are dominant with rising confidence, the focus stays on the irresistible arena of amplifying masculine power.”
The duo from Delhi NIFT, Aiman Agha and Armaan Randhawa, have been inspired by the owl. They mention, “The collection Owl In The City speaks about the mysteries and magnificence of the owl. The colour story revolves around black and white, which have in them the amalgamation of both beauty and harmony. It is a blend of black and white, lines and optics, clean cuts and silhouettes. It is a step towards providing every woman that special couture that transforms her into an enchanting new creature.”
NIFT Kolkata graduate Aditi Holani is thrilled to showcase her collection at the LFW and is hoping to hit the right note at the fashion fete. She says, “My collection is called Wabi-Sabi, which is inspired from the technology around us. It is an amusing vision of what lies ahead, the notion still holds that it is people who would tell machines what to do and not the other way round. The idea behind the collection is to illustrate that even imperfection has its ideal state. The look is relaxed and additive-free. Layering/displacement of patterns will be the starting point of sorts. Different techniques/surface textures are used to explain the natural/raw state of being ‘stitched’ with neon glee.”
While Aditi is looking at the future for inspiration, designer Pronoy Kapoor from Kolkata is returning to the roaring Twenties for his present collection. He says, “My collection is inspired from The Great Gatsby; however, it is not a tribute but a vision of how I saw the characters come alive. I have taken thick and heavy fabrics like tweeds and wools and altered the look by treating them with the ancient Indian techniques of hand-dyeing and mud-resist block-printing to achieve the decadent look. The cuts used are very soft and feminine yet strong enough to make a statement.”
Gen Next representatives from Mumbai — Jayesh and Rixi — are all set to launch their label Quirk Box at the LFW. The designers inform, “The prints being the key element, the line is primarily resort wear, hence we have maintained the same look but the silhouettes are more formal, more fluid, yet maintaining a sense of structure. The garments are basic in design, with the prints translated into digital printing, embroidery, and complemented with textures and colour blocking. The subtle detailing to the garment components only enhances the quirk quotient. Our collection aims to take the mundane into a fun, pop, comical and magical domain.”