Lakme Fashion Week’s Gen Next show provides up-and-coming designers a platform to showcase their talent. The Gen Next concept was introduced in 2006 to encourage quality, innovation, creativity and commercial viability among the budding designers.
Today several Gen Next designers are successful and have a steadily growing fan following. To celebrate five years of the concept’s success, Lakme Fashion Week organised a show with 10 established designers who debuted at Gen Next few years ago.
Highlights of the show
Anuj Sharma played with the concept of 3D, using triangles edged necklines, cloth bubbles on the bodice, giant covered buttons, cones appeared on the bustier and 3D motifs on the neck. Highly unusual, but translatable into an interesting retail collection.
Kallol Dutta is known for offbeat prints, and I spotted a number of people at the show wearing his clothes. Calling this line “Black Humourist”, Kallol used black as a backdrop for his funky prints. One of his prints was (ahem!) a fork and a spoon. Later asked about the use of such symbols, he shrugged and replied, “I just like to use random, impertinent objects and use them on my clothes.” Good reply, and good thing it’s quickly becoming wearable and acceptable fashion.
Kunal Rawal’s five outfits were perhaps the most refreshing (and fun) of the lot. His male models told the story of karigars (workers), carrying tools of their trade, looking rustic, and one even taking off his shirt. (Woot!) There was also a canvas waistcoat, a kurta shirt, a sherwani and bundi combo and a sporty four flap pocket jacket with trousers. The colour palette was largely khaki-inspired, with brown and orange. Here’s Kunal with a model (note the satchel):
Nitin Bal Chauhan is in the wrong profession. His heart and soul is of a visual artist working with mixed media. For his Freedom! Freedom! line, he created skirts, jackets and dresses with the most unusual materials—newspaper-print coated paper, spools of thread and plastic basket weave, creating a stunning effect on the ramp. The inspiration, he said after the show, was from farmers who are forced to pick up weapons to make their living (the Naxalite story). He created these garments using materials from their daily life. Can’t wear them, but very poignant stuff.
Other designers at the show were:
- Aneeth Arora
- Rahul Mishra
- Rimzin Dadu
- Nachiket Barve (more on him later)
- Sailex
- Swapnil Shinde
Which Gen Next designers do you like? Tell us!