The great Indian menswear shift

Menswear is getting a beardown rewrite today. Designers who created exclusively for women, from Aneeth Arora to Payal Pratap, are expanding into men’s lines; Goa and Jaipur are hosting menswear manner weeks; connected the runway, men are getting adjacent abstraction (no longer conscionable tokens); and astir recently, a men’s-only showcase, fittingly titled ‘The Boy’s Club’, opened Lakmē Fashion Week (LFW). Something rather unheard of till now.

The displacement has been gathering for years, accelerated by societal media, a new-age cohort of Indian designers, and a post-pandemic reckoning with idiosyncratic identity. “Today, galore Indian men crossed property groups are rather alert of cuts, colours and styles that suit their assemblage types. And they enactment successful much effort to dress,” says Selman Fazil, a menswear stylist and erstwhile benignant exertion at GQ India.

Whether it is thing arsenic insignificant arsenic my erstwhile boss’ harlequin socks that helium diligently switches for the bureau each day, oregon arsenic large arsenic Telugu histrion Vijay Deverakonda’s jazzy wedding wardrobe — wherever his bracelets and prime of colours and embroidery created much speech than his bride Rashmika Mandanna’s — gone are the humdrum neutrals of yore.

This flip was unmistakable astatine past month’s LFW Fall/Winter edition. ‘The Boy’s Club’ showcased stellar menswear designers from crossed the country, from Sushant Abrol’s Countrymade and Vivek Karunakaran, to Sahil Aneja and Dhruv Vaish. Their collections, though wildly antithetic successful sensibility, were agreed by the singular preoccupation of however men privation to beryllium perceived today.

Martial chic to temple jewellery

Abrol’s martial Countrymade acknowledged the times we are surviving successful — and remembered his brother, who served successful the equipped forces — with models wearing bronze-washed denims, textured Gandhi caps and jerry can-inspired bags arsenic they walked pensively to a people reminiscent of a surreal warfare zone. The designer, who erstwhile headed menswear for Rohit Bal, recalls noticing a vacuum. “Grooms were readying their pre-wedding vacations and post-wedding parties too, but the marque [Rohit Bal] wasn’t catering to that astatine the time,” helium says.

So, erstwhile helium started his ain label, coincidentally connected the aforesaid time helium mislaid his member to conflict, helium decided to formal men “for the mundane — with planetary context, but without being preachy”. This besides means paying much attraction to customisation. For instance, Abrol made a matching outfit for a groom’s canine recently!

In stark contrast, the artisanal Karunakaran paired elaborate veshtis with bomber jackets successful tussar silk and Kanjeevaram, accessorised with Kolhapuris and temple jewellery. “For the longest time, astatine Indian manner weeks, the South [of India] wasn’t taken precise seriously,” helium says. “Since my debut astatine Lakmē successful 2007, I person been committed to grounding my enactment successful my taste sensibilities, and telling our communicative without diluting it.” Hence, jasmine flowers, temple architecture, Madras checks and Tamil publication find their mode into his clothes. “Beyond weddings, I’ve ever wanted men to clasp these elements,” helium adds.

For his business-casuals, Aneja styled graphic shorts with embellished blazers and blistery pinkish socks. At the aforesaid time, Vaish reinterpreted neutral hues into matching sets of architectural monochromes acceptable for enactment and play. All of them created garments not bound by occasion, yet the amusement steered wide of overtly androgynous silhouettes.

Style go adventurous

For the archetypal clip successful my years attending Lakmē Fashion Week, the vigor among men successful the assemblage was electric. More than observing, they were buying the runway successful real-time, displaying a decisive hunger for the caller collections. “Usually, I’m conscionable present for networking,” shares a tech enforcement aft The Boy’s Club show. “But I saw a fewer looks I’d deterioration to a committee gathering — and my Gen Z employees would apt see maine cool.”

There are aggregate factors contributing to men dressing much intelligently and being much personality-forward with their style, according to Rohan Nayyar, menswear merchandiser astatine the multi-label concatenation Ogaan. “We person much Indian-origin designers showing exceptional menswear globally, with the likes of Kartik Research and Dhruv Kapoor. Men are getting styled for their weddings much than ever,” helium says. “And the ones who were erstwhile contented with a elemental pulverization bluish garment and trousers, oregon a printed T-shirt and straight-fit jeans, person go much alert of planetary trends and however they look and contiguous themselves wrong that context.”

The once-reliable costumes of well-heeled Indian men are present decaying astatine the seams. “I callback my parent recounting a Diwali enactment she attended, wherever the big pointed to his outfit and asked, ‘Do you recognise this kurta? I bought it 20 years agone astatine Ensemble.’ That summarises what men’s manner utilized to beryllium like,” says Aria Parikh, caput of selling astatine the multi-designer retail level Ensemble, and girl of its enforcement manager Tina Tahiliani Parikh. “Functional, a small spot boring if I’m being honest, and the benignant of happening you could deterioration indefinitely.” She is speedy to adhd that portion the classical broadside hasn’t disappeared, those who are funny successful benignant person go adventurous.

Aria besides noticed galore designers, chiefly known for their womenswear, leaning into menswear this season. AK|OK by Anamika Khanna, who introduced menswear this season, kept each the pleats successful their men’s trousers — with aggregate women astatine the amusement wanting a brace for themselves. “We are presenting a enactment of fluid garments,” states Khanna.

Payal Pratap, who besides debuted menswear, conjured a monochromatic cyanotype dreamscape with embroidered denim and an abundance of ties. Amit Aggarwal (who launched his men’s enactment successful 2018) injected his baroque sombreness and sculptural contours into jackets and blazers. “The postulation unfolded arsenic a dialog betwixt craft, innovation and emotion. In menswear, we combined structured bomber jackets with fluid tuxedos, allowing the tailoring to determination naturally,” says Aggarwal.

Focus connected comfortableness and silhouettes

Innovation was astatine the bosom of galore offerings. Take, for instance, Varshne B.’s CRCLE, victor of the R|Elan Circular Design Challenge. The Chennai-based decorator showed korai grass purses, vegan wool shirts, and quilted khadi coats. Line Outline by Deepit Chugh had sparkles and fringes juxtaposed with suits and shirts. Taarini Anand incorporated distinctive Indian motifs inspired by the Ajanta Caves into knitwear and kantha that gave a rooted rotation to sweater weather. And Anurag Gupta’s collection, with exaggerated proportions, gestured boldly astatine the future.

But the biggest takeaway was the wide displacement towards “layering, relaxed styling, and wide wearability”, says Piyush Pandey, caput of selling and e-commerce astatine TASVA, a collaborative marque betwixt decorator Tarun Tahiliani and Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd. Launched successful 2021, it has implicit 65 stores crossed the country. “There’s a beardown absorption connected comfort-driven fabrics and thin yet casual silhouettes that equilibrium operation with ease,” helium adds. “At the aforesaid time, there’s a renewed accent connected craftsmanship, peculiarly successful elaborate embroidery.”

It is astir apt this patchwork of sensibilities that culminated successful Kartik Research’s India debut with separates that could sneak into the astir mundane wardrobe and refurbish it. Think handspun khadi, brocades and Rabadi embroidery explored successful shirts, trousers, culottes and jackets with relaxed silhouettes.

Last year, Kartik Kumra, marque laminitis and two-time semi-finalist astatine the prestigious LVMH Prize, had spoken to maine earlier Paris Fashion Week astir utilizing artifact prints connected silk and cotton, decorated with embroidered chintz prints, to reinterpret the azygous for men. His ngo to instrumentality an artisanal mentation of Indian trade to a planetary assemblage has caught the attraction of celebrities specified arsenic American rapper Kendrick Lamar, K-pop icon V of BTS, and adjacent New York politician Zohran Mamdani, who took oath successful a customized eri silk necktie with golden floral embroidery.

“When I saw his [Kumra’s] collections successful Paris for the archetypal time, it changed everything I assumed Indian menswear to be,” a French luxury user tells me, admitting that helium flew to India for LFW to observe what much the country’s manner country has to offer. Like Péro’s playful ‘Out of Office’ finale that brought a whimsical twist with ties reworked into bows and book-shaped clutch bags to firm style, thing men person had a chokehold connected since the opening of time.

Decades of labour’

Aria of Ensemble believes large quality, fantabulous decorativeness and an archetypal constituent of presumption are wherever the menswear marketplace is headed. “And that’s wherever we privation to be,” she says, astir the benignant of brands they privation to banal astatine Ensemble.

The caller look for men is not an overnight phenomenon. Even if galore promising labels are young, astir person worked purposefully for years to bring their imaginativeness to the mainstream. Karunakaran, who has received overmuch praise aft his latest show, calls it “a acquisition of decades of labour”. More than a sartorial transition, this bonzer improvement of menswear has been aided by taste decolonisation: 1 wherever men person go progressively unafraid successful their flamboyance, and manner has erstwhile again go a halfway tenet of Indian masculinity.

The Mumbai-based writer, creator and exertion reports connected manner and culture.