The Gen Next Designer Programme at Lakmé Fashion Week, which is known for having introduced some of the industry’s most renowned designers like Rahul Mishra, Nachiket Barve, Masaba Gupta, Kallol Dutta and Aneeth Arora, is now geared up to groom its next batch of five promising designers.
The winners have been handpicked by the LFW Advisory Board that consists of the crème de la crème of the Indian Fashion Industry, at its meeting, which took place in the last week of June. The board members present were Jaspreet Chandok – Vice President and Head - Fashion, IMG Reliance; Purnima Lamba – Head of Innovations, Lakmé; AlkaNishar – Owner, Aza; Namrata Zakaria – Fashion Columnist; Manish Malhotra – Fashion Designer; Anamika Khanna – Fashion Designer; SangitaKathiwada– Owner and Creative Director, Melange; Dr.Darlie Koshy – Director, National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad; and Mehernaz Dhondy – Editor, Grazia India.
Announcing this batch of GenNext designers, Purnima Lamba, Head of Innovations, Lakmé says, “Lakmé Fashion Week has always believed in promoting and encouraging designers who have the potential to be the future of fashion. Just like our past seasons, this season will also see a host of Gen Next designers showcasing their pathbreaking designs on the runway.”
Talking about the Gen Next programme, Jaspreet Chandok, Vice-President & Head- Fashion, IMG Reliance said, “Lakmé Fashion Week Gen Next has become one of the leading platforms for discovering design talent in the country. We aim to not just recognize talent, but also hone it through a mentorship and guidance programme. The five designers shortlisted this season have been handpicked keeping in mind their potential to go on and create designs that will stun the world in the near future."
Here are Gen Next designers to look out for...
Saaksha Parekh & Kinnari Kamat (28 and 33, Mumbai)
Saaksha & Kinni create their bold collection using fabrics like Chiffon and Chanderi, along with metal woven sheets with thread work and cut work. This designer duo has been featured across leading magazines and newspapers.
The collection comes from the idea of equipping a woman with everything she needs on her journey to self-discovery. It takes inspiration from the life and times of Tomoe Gozen – the 12th century warrior woman who slashed her way to samurai stardom, matched grace with grit, delicacy with deadly, and tenderness with temerity. The Saaksha & Kinni woman is mindful of her strength and treats her clothing as armour – psychological or otherwise – that makes sure her private stash of courage, individuality, and self-assuredness never runs dry.
Bloni by Akshat Bansal (26, New Delhi)
Akshat brings his unique perspective to Bloni’s creations, having worked with designers like TarunTahiliani, Dolly J, Bada Saab, and Cad and the Dandy, London.
He uses an amalgamation of techniques to bring to life his vision of a literal world imbibed into one that is barely palpable – almost wooden.
The collection is inspired by snow clad mountains, and the science of nature in its most monochromatic appearance. The collection explores age old techniques like tie and dye and crochet, and creates a collection that remains androgynous at its core. Fabrics like chanderi combined with Italian crepes lend themselves to a seamless marriage between Indian techniques and fabrics onto western silhouettes.
Integument by Deepak Pathak (30, Noida)
With Integument, Deepak plays around with techniques like Jacquard Knitting and Flock Printing, and fabrics like felt, wool blend, twill suiting and knitted net to create unique garments. Deepak has worked with some of the biggest names in the Indian fashion industry like Sabyasachi Couture, Manish Malhotra and Patine.
The collection began as a reminiscent of ‘Bengali Fishermen’.The garments are draped, twisted and tucked with immaculate tailoring and clean lines in an uncluttered palette of black and grey.The silhouettes are made of sinuous shapes, and the artworks are born out of nostalgia.
Anaam by Sumiran Kabir Sharma (30, New Delhi)
Anaam creatively uses silhouette generation techniques that involve a mix of draping and pattern making, to ensure minimum to zero wastage of fabric during production. The fabric used in their work are wool and wool blends. The brand has already been featured invarious fashion magazines. Sumiran’s creations have also been worn by Sara Jane Dias, PavleenGujral, Ali Faizal, Sapna Moti Bhavnani, Karan Tacker and Natasha Rastogi, among others.
The AW ’17 collection, Sonagachire presents an unstoppable, unbeatable army of warriors from the infamous district who march headfirst in flowy uniforms. Strong, fierce, nameless, ageless, genderless silhouettes representing the collective strength and a call for identity, respect and recognition.
Untitled co. by Shenali Sema and Rinzin Lama (32 and 38, New Delhi)
Untitled Co. specializes in designs driven by technique, and surface treatment creating wearable pieces of art. They use several interesting embroidery techniques that are showcased across the collection.An original design technique and concept was selected by international fashion house- Kenzo, which was seen on the likes of, blogger Susannah Lau of Style Bubble. Shenali and Rinzin bring diverse experience to the table, having worked with Varun Sardana, Anna Sui New York, Morphe, Reliance Retail and Creative Impex between them.
The collection is driven by embroidery techniques, surface treatments and fabric manipulation, creating wearable pieces of art that is reminiscent of Japanese printmaking. This collection comprises of treadle embroidered single stitch technique, cut-work and heat-set micro pleating on double softener washed grainy polyester georgette; and hand embroidered knotting technique on cotton mesh.