London Fashion Week: Aarti Vijay Gupta writes a love letter to Kashmir

When Aarti Vijay Gupta was working on her debut collection showcase at the recent London Fashion Week, she wanted her clothes to show the imagery of Kashmir. 

Titled “Postcard From Kashmir”, the collection, which was presented last week, included menswear and womenswear showcasing the region's green pastures and tall mountains. In the collection, miniature art and Pahadi paintings bloom as prints, alongside kashidakari motifs. Her choice of fabric was linen, along with silk and crêpe.

In an interview with Lounge, Gupta speaks about her debut at the London Fashion Week, the making of the collection and the process of creating Indian clothes with a global appeal. Edited excerpts: 

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Why did you chose Kashmir?

We have been promoting one art form at a time since the inception of the label. This season, we went to Kashmir. It started with my 2022 visit to Kashmir to work on papier-mâché for the current season. I was mesmerised by the beauty of the place. For the first time, we have did photo prints of the pictures taken in 2022. You will be seeing more of papier-mâché prints, a lot of Pahari painting motifs and Kashmiri miniature motifs.

What was the larger idea behind the collection?

The entire collection is an effort to take India on the global platform but we did tone down the colour palette and crafted cleaner silhouettes, easy separates which can be mixed and matched with other pieces of the collection. We are predominantly known for our contemporary functional clothing inspired by Indian art forms. We like the pieces to be practical yet a point of conversation, something that stays with you forever.

We have been trying to create a global language with Indian art at its core and so we keep on exploring ways to do it. The overarching focus is to be an Indian brand at global level.

Any dream muse you’d love to dress?

For me, any particular person or celeb or individual is never the focus. I feel like anyone and everyone should feel like a muse when they wear a piece they like. It should add value to their personality and empower them by way of dressing.

How do you conceptualise a collection?

I never plan my days. It’s all always very natural and I go with the flow. A strong intuition followed by me trying to find out everything about that art form leads me to be completely absorbed in my work.

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