11.11: Pop! Goes The Weasel

Silhouettes in fashion are contouring personalities more than bodies. Designers bear testimony to this tectonic shift with garments that are personal, relatable and cerebral.

11.11/eleven eleven by Himanshu Shani & Mia Morikawa

How has 11.11 as a brand progressed in adopting the breathable silhouette route?

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MM: I suppose from the genesis of 11.11, there was always a conscious effort to be different; to follow a slightly deconstructed, asymmetrical route in silhouettes. HS: 11.11 is very organically inclined in its design philosophy. Particularly, in the current season, we’ve introduced the sari pants. It takes a traditional silhouette and merges it with a Western one.

Is your label experimenting with gender-neutral ensembles?

MM: Yes, 11.11 tries to experiment with garments that do not lay on the binaries of gender, but somewhere are more fluid than that. Our collections are designed in response to the environment and issues that you can front. The sari pants are a response to our environment. It’s what we imagine people want to wear and feel comfortable in.

Do you target a certain age group for 11.11?

HS: We design with a consumer in mind, as opposed to for a particular age. The idea is for our clothes to be worn every day without being restrictive.

MM: The common denominator of the people that buy are those who have identified their style. A lot of our customers care about how the garments are made, and have an eye and a heightened sensibility for the finer details in our garments.

Do you take sustainability into account while designing? What fabric innovations are you looking at?

HS: We use only natural dyeing in the manufacture of our clothes. Apart from this, there is screen and block printing. We incorporate Kala cotton and Ahimsa silk in our collection. We believe in working closely with Indian crafts that reflect our history and culture.

MM: We have become more sensitive about fabric sourcing. We sometimes also use reclaimed materials. I’ve been living in Delhi for over five years now, and the quality of air is a big concern. People who are buying from fast-fashion labels like Walmart or Zara must understand that they are adding to the existing environmental concerns. We consciously work towards making our line sensitive to these concerns.

From the May 2020 issue of L’Officiel India.