LFW W/F 2019 Day One: Gen Next Designers Present Fascinating Ensembles

Day One of the ongoing Lakme Fashion Week Winter Festive 2019 opened with promising talent. The first show was by the Gen Next designers, who were presented by INIFD. Sahib Bhatia, Ankita Srivastava, Akanksha Aggarwal, Gaurav Singh, Manjushree Saikia, and Stanzin Palmo were the six designers selected from 400 entries to present their collections at LFW. With their outfits and inspiration, they offered us fresh prespectives. Let's explore what their debut collection looked like.

Amaaré by Sahib Bhatia

Sahib Bhatia's debut Lakme Fashion Week Winter/ Festive 2019 collection had a rustic appeal. With his menswear ensembles, the designer paid tribute to the raw beauty of tribal craft. Sahib Bhatia was inspired by the Aboriginal paintings and that element he incorporated in his collection. Structured and crisp, there was a textural appeal to his ensembles. The outfits from Amaaré by Sahib Bhatia were dipped in dark hues and he definitely broke rules with painted foreheads.

Little Things Studio by Ankita Srivastava

Sustainability was the forte of the designer, Ankita Srivastava. She used vegan silk and waste cotton in her collection. She also crafted her outfits with fabrics such as chanderi, cotton khadi, khadi, and more. Her ensembles were fascinating and were hand-sketched too. We were particularly amazed to see the striped and abstract-printed saris with shirt blouses and some models also walked down the ramp with scarfs coiled around their neck.

Ura Maku by Manjushree Saikia

Earthy-toned and laiback, Manjushree Saikia's collection was a homage to artisans and handmade textiles. She used fabrics, which included tea-dyed, mulberry, eri, muga silk, organic cotton, and chanderi tissue in her collection titled, 'Down to Reality'. The ensembles were fuss-free, textural, and seemed very contemporary classic. Brown was the dominating colour in her collection but in a few of her outfits, she balanced brown with cream.

Anatomy by Gaurav Singh

The inspiration can come from so many unassuming aspects of life and this Gazipur-based designer, Gaurav Singh was inspired by banana leaf. His collection was inspired by Kadali- Patram (a sanskrit name for banana leaf). The designer's outfits were pretty layered and featured interesting drapes. There was a theatrical element to his asymmetrical ensembles - a sort of understated bold touch.

Noié Noéi by Akanksha Aggarwal

Noié Noéi by Akanksha Aggarwal was a collection that was for women, who are self-empowered and can swiftly transition from dreamy world to the reality. Her outfits blended contrasting patterns and the designer made a colourful splash at the ramp of the Lakme Fashion Week Winter/Festive 2019. The pairing of outfits made her attires look a bit surreal. She used fabrics including cotton, linen, jute, silk organza in her collection.

Zilzom by Stanzin Palmo

Ladakh-based designer, Stanzin Palmo probably gave us one of the most stunning ramp moments with her collection. Her outfits were highlighted by rich hues and the braid pigtails were simply unforgettable. With her collection, the designer showed us the flora of Ladakh. The fabrics were unique too. Ladakh handmade pashmina and Nambu wool were among the fabrics Stanzin Palmo incorporated. The drapes were beautiful and the designer presented Ladakh in a modern light.

So, whose collection did you love the most?