Amit Aggarwal opens up on his new line and the future of surface and silhouette exploration

After seducing the fashion cognoscenti with his jeu d’esprit take on upcycling, fusing alchemical with ephemeral, recontextualising textiles and reshaping the way we perceive engineered garments — designer Amit Aggarwal’s fashion trajectory makes for an interesting study. The design maven has time and again dished out a winning mix of traditionalism and of-the-moment cool. His sculpted-yet-light-as-a-feather offerings have celebrated the spirit of individualism. Patola weaves never looked so cool till he re-engineered them. He’s transmogrified recycled plastic, bindi sheet patchwork and industrial materials into theatrical-yet-wearable pieces. The doyen, who’s been penning a thesaurus on the art of moulding and freezing amorphous forms into structures makes a foray into menswear this season at Lakme Fashion Week with a collection inspired by NEXA. Over to him...

What prompted you to venture into menswear after so many years and showcase it on the runway? 

We have used a lot of androgynous materials in our women’s wear and thought it would be interesting to take the textile story to menswear by refining the silhouette story to blurring the lines between gender identities. We are not doing menswear because it is expected from a designer brand of a certain stature, we truly believe that we have a unique product to offer to the market.

Who’s the Amit Aggarwal man? 

He is bold, experimental, non-conformist and edgy.

The Indian menswear space has been by far synonymous with occasional pieces. Are Indian men ready to embrace new silhouettes? 

The menswear market is in a very experimental space right now and I think we are going to push the envelope even more. Using innovative textiles in enthralling silhouettes with exquisite details, it will be approachable to a man but also experimental for them to know that they are wearing a high fashion brand with a unique aesthetic for them to stand out.

You’ve been at the forefront of developing and upcycling new textiles. Is surface the future of fashion? Is fashion done with silhouettes? 

As a designer, I enjoy the material play that goes into the making of our collections, the various textures that are developed through ingredients that are not a regular find in the market. Having said that, one of the most compelling stories in our collections have been our extensive silhouette exploration, morphing different aspects of traditional Indian and western shapes with each other and infusing them with structure and form. I see the future of fashion in a combination of surface texturing and redesigning silhouettes.