October 13, 2019 Asmita Aggarwal

Hustle and Ruffle

His gowns ten years ago, found criticism, but Amit GT never gave up, even though the timing wasn’t perfect. Now he is back to give lehengas a ‘seductive’ makeover

By Asmita Aggarwal

When Amit Gupta showed his Western ball gowns the media asked him, who would wear such a collection in India, but today he is glad that Bollywood and prominent magazines promoted his creations and many designers followed suit as he cut the forest to pave the way. “We all created a market for gowns in India. Now I feel I want to revolutionise lehengas in India and make them more contemporary,” says the designer, who is back after almost ten years and showcased at the Lotus Make-Up India Fashion Week SS’20, in association with EbixCash.

Amit was undoubtedly the first Indian designer to court glamorous gowns at the fashion week more than a decade ago. “Those were the days when India wasn’t ready for my collection. I started showing mostly in Europe. Lately, the Indian market has become important for what I make and I had been meaning to show my line at fashion week, but the dates were clashing with fashion events in Europe. I am hoping I will be regular in fashion week now,” he adds.

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An avid lover of paintings, art and culture, and Amit’s lines often use these elements for inspiration. This season, Sumi ink paintings have become a leitmotif. “My latest line depicts the allure of floral blooms and birds. The ignition point was Sumi paintings that usually depict Japanese flora and fauna, I used some of the subjects and translated them into linear almost brush stroke-like embroideries and appliqués. The mood was nature in its abundance that you can find in the woods so the colours of snow, wild berries, prunes, moss, and lavenders are used. The underlying theme is the lady in the woods waltzing with her par amour as the snow falls and the moon gazes. The collection is full of ball gowns in gazar, tulle and organza and crepes,” he explains.

With style making women’s lives easier in terms of clothing and the world moving towards gender-neutral, trend and embellishment free as well as monochromatic clothing, Amit has been serving a niche showing “escapist” collections meant for formal dos. He believes women have a lot of variety in clothing to choose from, nobody judges them on what direction in styling she wants to take. “However, fashion is becoming utilitarian and line between daywear and activewear are blurring, women are wearing athleisure styles that are making lives of women easier as they can navigate through the day in sports inspired clothing without having to change. This is why sneakers are becoming such an important accessory. In my view, fuss-free, comfortable and gender-neutral styles has a lot of swag. If style and comfort can coexist then we must choose both and today’s fashion is all about the same,” he explains.

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Every brand works on their signature and Amit has been a devotee of the cacophony of hard and soft materials to create elfish-like silhouettes. There is a mix of hard embroideries blended with soft fabric textures, accentuated with the allure of feathers and romantic ruffles and drapes over sharp tailored silhouettes. “This year I have developed a new signature style of linear embroidery and applique work that has evolved after so many years of using fabric textures with embroideries,” he admits.

His enduring love for glamour remains his biggest challenge and he smiles, “I can’t make simple utilitarian clothing, but then I did not sign up for fashion if glamour wasn’t part of it.” His tagline of his label is luxe, power and seduction and it says it all!

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