Lumen, the name of Amit Aggarwal’s latest collection, one curated especially for the India Couture Week 2019, means light. And light, there was plenty. No, we’re not just talking about the light which was reflected off the clothes, pieced together by strategically juxtaposing layers, engineered to create an illusion play involving light and shadow..... although, it’s been a while since we’ve seen anything like it. We’re talking from a point of view that transcends the normative lingua franca of fashion, where phrases like ‘synergy between the human and plant anatomy’, 'universe' and 'life', are seldom used in the same sentence.
Because Amit Aggarwal’s collection is all that, and then, it’s also very wearable.
The collection was a mish-mash of structured lehengas – not your garden variety ones - but those with plunging necklines, hyper-exaggerated shoulder structure, pre-attached dupatta, and one-shoulder blouses. It saw a bevy of pre-draped sarees and other fusion silhouettes which were rejigged with a slant of futurism – something that’s seldom associated with occasionwear.
If you’re expecting a uniform colour palette, or any thread of obvious commonality to tie everything together, I’m afraid you’ll have to look beyond what meets the eye. Dig deep. Break down his clothes to individual fabric strands to discover that they’re all made from combining recycled material with India’s most treasured fabric, banarasi silk. Amit Aggarwal managed to turn man’s trash into sartorial treasure and made it look ethereal.
Where fashion used to be dictated by emotions, collections are now bi-anually dished out based on formulaic data from marketers, with little to no regard to creativity. It's finally nice to see a designer subvert them from time to time, give you what you want and make you feel like you're doing the environment a service at the same time.
And that’s the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel that I’m talking about.
View the collection, here.
