Lakme fashion week 2026 review: Take it easy, it's the season of effortless dressing

Aneeth Arora’s Péro show on 22 March captured the mood of this year’s Lakmé Fashion Week, in collaboration with the Fashion Design Council of India: getting dressed should be easy.

Over four days, 20-plus designers presented clothes you could wear tomorrow without overthinking, without the need to renegotiate your existing wardrobe, and most importantly, without compromising on your personal style.

Péro has, especially, built a distinct language around ease in its 17 years of existence. And that philosophy was on display on Sunday—the final day of Lakmé Fashion Week 2026—as models walked, smiled and danced through an office-themed set while presenting the fall/winter collection, Out of Office.

Working within a restrained palette of white and blue (perhaps a nod to both white- and blue-collar worlds), Arora stayed true to her signatures: roomy, embroidered wool jackets (long and cropped), and roomier Harajuku-style gingham trousers paired with bandhini blouses. Flirty, floral Chanderi dresses were finished with delicate lace and bow detailing. Playful accessories, from 3D pencil-shaped hair ties to caps with string curtains that veiled the eyes, added a layer of wit. There was humour, too. Sweaters bore workplace slang, from “Mentally OOO” to “Trying to Look Busy”, turning the banalities of office life into something lighter. Each look was designed with layering in mind, reinforcing a wardrobe built for flexibility rather than occasion.

A similar impulse—fashion that asks you to take life a little less seriously, something we could use right now considering world events—was visible at the opening of Lakmé Fashion Week 2026, with “The Boy’s Club”, a menswear showcase featuring labels such as Countrymade, Dhruv Vaish and Vivek Karunakaran.

Sushant Abrol’s 2019-born label Countrymade, which has made its way to multi-brand stores in Japan and the US, offered a contemporary take on kantha, alongside mud-resist printing and cold pigment dyeing in its collection, Cenotaph. Among the standout looks was a denim-on-denim ensemble that felt closer to optical art than a conventional reading of Bengal’s kantha. Vaish, too, leaned into structure, working with grids and lines across linen, cotton denim and printed silks in The Blueprint.

Karunakaran’s The Thangam, meanwhile, explored ceremonial menswear through raw, tussar and Kanjeevaram silks and silk organza. Veshtis and kurtas were paired with embroidered bomber jackets, while bandhgala-inspired shirts and long jackets were styled with palazzo-like trousers. What stood out was the versatility of several pieces—kurtas and trousers that could move easily from a casual gathering to, say, a relaxed office setting.

More broadly, “The Boy’s Club” underscored one of the more compelling shifts this season: menswear that could slip seamlessly into a woman’s wardrobe. The old binaries of rigid, predictable Indian menswear are steadily dissolving. In their place is a more fluid, experimental approach to silhouette and styling—one that not only expands the vocabulary of menswear, but also makes it increasingly gender-fluid without tipping into gimmick.

The Abraham & Thakore show on the opening day of the fashion week captured this shift most convincingly. A male model wore a long, kurta-style white cotton shirt with matching pyjama-like trousers, layered with a grey jacket finished with subtle thread detailing. It was easy to imagine the same look, unchanged, on a woman. There was nothing overtly remarkable about it—and that was precisely the point. You could accesorize it the way you wanted with hats, shoes, whatever you like, or nothing at all.

Such fashion reaffirms that simple, well-made, comfortable clothes can work for all bodies and genders, and across contexts and geographies.

Kartik Research’s debut show also included clothes for grown-ups, the ones who know their mind, and want more wears out of what they own, while wearing Indian craft. That has been the guiding impulse of the Delhi-based label since its founding five years ago by Kartik Kumra, 25.

A two-time semi-finalist at the LVMH Prize and the recent “Guest Country” winner for India at the Fashion Trust Arabia Awards, Kumra has in a short span built an international presence with what can be described as “neo-heritage India”. His use of Rabari embroidery, handspun khadi, brocades, zari, kantha, patchwork and block printing in relaxed mens shirts, trousers, culottes and jackets reinforced the label’s central proposition: wearability and style without compromising on craft, a balance that homegrown designers are increasingly learning to strike.

At AK-OK, Anamika Khanna offered some seen-before billowy silhouettes with visual impact in neutral shades. Her range of menswear, especially an ecru sweater with fur-like detailing and darted trousers, was a pleasant surprise but the surprises were limited.

Rahul Mishra’s AFEW show, too, left you wanting more. His White Gold collection—marking 20 years since he first presented at Lakmé Fashion Week—was anchored in handloom cotton and Chanderi. It included dresses loosely inspired by Greek goddesses, albeit with an unfinished look. Familiar silhouettes, like blazers and coats, were embellished with dragonfly motifs, an idea that felt less than surprising from a designer who has built a global reputation for transforming fashion into wearable art.

Amit Aggarwal’s Orizon leaned firmly towards occasion-wear rather than ready-to-wear.

Beyond Lakmé Fashion Week, a larger pattern seems to be emerging. India’s couturiers continue to struggle with pret lines, with few managing to create pieces that could make today’s buyer weak in the knees. Is it the relentless churn of fashion weeks, the pressures of corporate backing—or a combination of both that isn’t allowing them to crack the market?

The younger crop of designers, on the other hand, felt far more assured. Whether it was Jubinav Chadha’s intelligent use of floral motifs or Saim’s experimentation with silk Chanderi to create sculptural detailing, there was a sense of play, mischief and purpose.

In a reality that feels exhausting and uncertain, any chance to escape into fantasy—to pause and admire the beauty of clothes—feels like a balm.