Dhruv Kapoor’s coed spring collection was a fashion flashback to his toddler years wanting to feel like a grown-up by borrowing clothes from his parents or older siblings, “to get into their shoes and [through] the sound of the heels feel like a grown-up,” the Indian designer said.
Childhood memories can be safe harbors, especially in harsh times, and to reinforce that messaging Kapoor had an inflatable version of the stuffed bunny he had as a kid mounted at the center of his Milan catwalk, red-lit to create an immersive space.
Fashion-wise he embraced different avenues to retrieve those feelings, for example, by stretching proportions — in the blazer cut slightly longer and the denim pants worn low-rise and secured in place by over-tightened studded belts — or parading a women’s frock with a cutout spotlight on the belly to look like a kid styling a bed linen as a ballgown.
In his usual modern decorative vein, beadwork and embroideries stood out for their intricacy and childlike immediacy, all the while adding some street-cred and swagger to the Indian tradition in these fields.
A beadwork red bunny decked jeans and trucker jackets, field jackets bore beaded floral appliqué, a strong-shouldered boxy blazer had dangling crystals and full-sequined camp shirts featured imaginative drawings harkening back to the designer’s scrapbooking while in prep school.
The designer has been showing in Milan for a few seasons now, perhaps with the credit of bringing to the city — and the international fashion stage it is — a new Millennial-fluent take on contemporary Indian culture beyond clichés.