Designers Abhishek, Soumitra go eco-friendly at LFW

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Their magic mantra was eco-friendly clothes. So, organic fabrics, dyes and handspun khadi with stylish western cuts were prominent in designers Abhishek Dutta and Soumitra Mondal’s collection that they showcased at the ongoing Lakme Fashion Week (LFW).

“You have seen both sides of Bengal together. We are both using eco-friendly stuff but at the same time the collections are independent of each other,” Abhishek said after the show.

He described his collection as Indigo Revolt because he preferred natural dyes over using chemicals for his collections.

“This time, the festive collection that we revealed was Indgo Revolt. It’s not about the revolt that happened in the British era. It’s talking about indigo that should be used as a natural dye, instead of chemical dyes. The entire collection was eco-friendly. I have also used some recycled products at times,” he said.

“Organic cotton has been used in the collection. If you see, the silhouettes are more fluid, it’s more relaxed and it’s not very structured. There is an Indian story to it and the cuts are a little more westernised. Since it’s a festive collection, people should get both,” he added.

And he didn’t experiment with colours – his collections were mainly in off-white and indigo.

“Basically, my collection was Kora and Indigo. I thought of sticking to one colour. Indigo is the prominent colour and

off-white the contrasting colour. It was quite challenging to maintain one colour,” said Abhishek.

His clohtes had slightly western cuts. “Lot of layering has been used. I think it breaks the monotony of Indian wear. I won’t say it’s a fusion but a different style given to a festive collection.”

Sumitra, on the other hand, tried to break the pre-conceived notions about khadi with his creation.

“My collection is all about khadi. It’s all about India. For me, it’s important to show who we are. Basically if you see, khadi is gifted by India to the world. Khadi is a very fantastic fabric. I wanted to break the concept that khadi is only for the politicians or older people. Khadi is for all ages and you can wear it in any season,” said Soumitra.

He experimented with bright colours, but preferred handcrafting for printing and designing.

“It’s a festive season so to show that it is happy time, I preferred bright colours and used darker shades of grey, brown and so on. The designs are also batik. It’s not print it’s a mix of art and craft. So the entire collection is hand printed,” said Soumitra.