Master Twister

The youngest jury member at Mittelmoda, a couturier, and an art geek is how Gaurav Gupta could be well defined. His etched work and development procedures talk really of him and his spirit overflows imagination. With imagination drawn from architecture around him and a manner of thinking that just elevates him to stretch the limits further; he is surely a power to experience with.

With inspiration found in surrealism, Gaurav recently opened his couture dream world in form of a flagship store at Mehrauli and we sat for a brief chat with him to find out more about his store, his take on sustainable clothing, and social media. Excerpts from the interview.

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You recently opened your flagship store at Mehrauli that as you say, is an haute couture dreamscape. What vision you had for it? Who designed it?

Finding inspiration in surrealism, it is my interpretation of fantasy palace ruins, complete with mystical references and magical creatures. We envisaged our entire store around an age-old Siris tree, which we encased beautifully in a pristine glass prism, with a carefully shaped moon-roof, balancing the geometric with the poetic. Architecturally, we envisioned bringing together the old and the new in a harmonious contrast - a Romanesque oval fountain in the centre of the store which is outlined with curvilinear walls, beveled mirror edges are interspersed in the space to create a feeling of endlessness.

The store is a deep-design collaboration with Studio Lotus. Since our aesthetic aligned very well on our last two stores, this was a very natural progression for us.

2. How did you start getting interested in fashion? Was designing something that you always wished to take up?

Yes. I was always interested in arts. In fact, there is no one in my family who was interested in fashion, arts, or any other similar field. My father has a business that specialises in iron and steel and he wished, I too followed that but I chose fashion since it was too boring for me. In school, I was always interested in trying my hand at sculpture, liked to dance and then eventually, NIFT and Central Saint Martins happened.

3. How did the thought of creating something sculptural; something from drapes came about?

I believe in rhythm and sense of sensitivity which I think is very beautiful and spiritual so, that’s why these sculptures come very naturally to me.

4. You’ve been the youngest jury member at Mittelmoda. What’s your takeaway from the process?

Mittelmoda was quite a few years back and it was very exciting to see it at such an early stage of life, early stage of my career. I could see how there are different types of talents, philosophies, and how can I objectively look at it.

5. Tell us about the design and crafting process behind your sculpted garments? What techniques do you make use of? What are the key fabrics you use?

I use crepes, georgette, and organza. We take up homogenous techniques of sculpting and boning, clean lines and embroideries. We bone the fabrics with the technique of corsetry so that the fabric becomes malleable and can be sculpted into different shapes. It’s all like playing around, playing around with fabric manipulation, embroidery manipulation, sculpted fabrics, sculpted embroideries. It’s an abstract, playful process of turning something into very sophisticated and truly couture.

Does architecture inspire you?

Yes, definitely architecture inspires me. I get inspired from something like Zaha Hadid’s architecture, Anish Kapoor’s art. There is no direct inspiration but it stays in my subconscious and I think what inspires me somewhere is the experience as I visit a place.

Walk us through your collection, “Descend”.

Descend embodies all things futuristic, crystalline and wavy. The collection is inspired by the alignment of stars in a galaxy. We have employed experimental, textured elements and structures, drawing from the shape of a prism, and this construction is weaved in a way to make the woman wearing it seem more powerful.

Curvilinear in form, the collection boasts of sharp details along with liberating as well as constrained silhouettes. Birds, wings, feathers and waves, and the journey of being one with nature is explored through multi-dimensional composition and forms, adding an eclectic vibe to sophisticated couture. Indigenous boning and sculpting techniques of the brand developed in-house all combine to enhance the plural dimensions of the pieces.

Is there any particular reason that you mostly stick to colours such as grey, blue, and beige?

Apart from these, we also do work with a lot of other colours such as shades of greens, pinks. There are a lot of designers who work with a wide range of colours, and on the other hand, with us, our colours are very found and sophisticated. There are at times when we might have 20 different colours on our palette inspiration so, our colours are not that limited.

Will you try your hand at Ready-to-wear anytime soon?

Ya, we are planning to get a few more dresses, sublets, and tops, etc. We are also planning to get suit sets and we definitely wish to expand that collection as I want to convert my Emporio store into ready-to-wear.

What are your views on sustainable fashion?

I think it is the need of the hour and everyone should be working towards sustainable fashion. The way I do it is I don’t use pure fabrics such as cotton and silks for most of my collections. The anti pollution campaign that I did last year, thinking of the extreme situation that we are in today, we put oxygen exhaling plants all around our factory and the plastic that we use in our packaging is biodegradable fruit plastic.

We have witnessed a shift in the creativity of your garments. From your iconic Lightfall gown to illusion gown and to your very recent sculpted gown seen on Anjali Lama. So, what’s in pipeline?

Yes. Currently, our focus is on menswear with GG man. We are looking at some exciting design collaborations in the coming months. But for now, all I can say is that there are some exciting things in the pipeline which you should keep an eye out for.

Since, social media is gaining so much popularity; how do you think social media impacts you and your brand?

Social media is the primary focus of communication for any brand. It allows direct communication with the clients, or with media, and with public to make them understand the philosophy of the brand and things that are happening in the brand. Today, we can put something on Instagram, and the next day there might be 20 orders of the same so, yes it does impacts us hugely.