Earlier this month, at his 20th-anniversary show in Mumbai, Sabyasachi Mukherjee placed his male fashions in silk pajamas, flimsy shirts, and kaftans that had been no special from what his female styles were wearing. Then you have the brand new campaign from Shantanu & Nikhil, where actor Jim Sarbh is in draped silk sherwanis. Elsewhere, Ranveer Singh, the poster boy of gender-fluid style and all matters OTT has been setting social media abuzz in a yellow plaid fit with the aid of Dhruv Kapoor.
In the South, Chennai-based multi-brand shop Evoluzione introduces its Men’s Sartorial Edit subsequent month — “curating younger designers who’re thinking silhouettes and experimenting with fits and prints” — and in Mumbai, bespoke shoe and eyewear trunk indicates are paying extra interest to what men need. “Terms like androgyny, un-binary and genderless are gaining traction,” opines Vijendra Bhardwaj, GQ India’s (former) style director. “There’s an excessive melding of factors of womenswear and menswear, and questioning and redefining the notions of masculinity.” And that is a growing “new enterprise and opportunity,” feels Nikhil Mehra, of Delhi-based totally emblem Shantanu & Nikhil, who provides, “The subsequent 5 to 6 years belong to guys.” We speak with 14 catalysts — designers, stylists, and stores — on their new collections and where menswear is heading in India.
With gender-fluid drapes and recognition on fabric, Antar-Agni also addresses “that small percent of authors, bloggers, creative and sportspeople who will get our philosophy,” says Dubey, 31, who hails from Gorakhpur in UP. At his first display five years ago, approximately 30% of his clients for menswear had been women. “So we brought in androgyny. We proved that drapes and cuts are vital, with attention on the ‘wearability thing and the way the cloth falls in your shoulder, how you control the lines around the frame”. Sneakers painted properly with this label, and he added jackets final yr. He calls them “enhancers — one layer that you may upload to any outfit.” With this season’s Into the Light collection, Dubey has explored “simplicity and freedom from inhibitions and stereotypes.”
Lessons from Woolmark
“I paintings on motifs and patterns that are my personal, and do now not consciousness of Baroque or Rococo fashion. The Woolmark enjoy turned into a yr-lengthy technique, which I changed into literally dreaming approximately sheep. I even went to look at a farm with sheep to purchase it! But severely, it made me greater intense in my procedure. From my very first display in 2014.”
Keeping it easy
I have been operating on linen, zari, and lycra blends with diffused paintings. The original idea becomes no longer to coloration block but breaks the monotony with flashes of pores and skin on the wrist, ankle, and chest. We collaborate with grasp weavers in clusters in Bhagalpur and Meerut. And Malkha has been sourced from Andhra Pradesh from the very start.
“Our wintry weather is not without a doubt wintry weather, so the point of interest of menswear is in the summertime. In the global context, this makes global brands uneasy. Can India ever be a worldwide player within the phase, or is it honest to be as compared as a tropical outpost for international brands?” asks the designer, whose brand is synonymous with bandhgalas and jodhpurs. The signature silhouette receives a futuristic remedy in Rathore’s modern-day collection: it may be visible “within the reduce of the clothes, which resonates an edgy story,” he says, including those sustainable embroideries and other tailoring techniques complement it. When it involves ordinary wear, he says, “Pret is the heartbeat of maximum manufacturers oscillating in the mid-segment, which calls for a rate-sensitive method. This makes it an integral part of the menswear commercial enterprise.”