Robert Wun celebrated his label’s 10th anniversary in Hong Kong with a revamped couture show called The Homecoming Show. Featuring 10 new looks and 11 drawn from the archives over the past decade, his latest collection on display at Hong Kong’s Palace Museum was an emotional homecoming. In an interview with Tatler, he said: “We look back at what defines us as a brand throughout the entire journey. Hong Kong [is] “The place where I was born and raised. The goal was to examine what made me who I am today, embrace those roots with grace, look back while moving forward with hope, and illustrate my Hong Kong with an open heart – personal, universal, and most importantly, collective.”
The surreal looks are the latest in a series of what appears to be a new trend. While for Wun it was the unconditional passage of time, his personal history and the search for a human connection between abstract concepts, for designer Amit Aggarwal it was more deterministic. The Indian designer focused on the “cause and effect nature of time” and how “time shapes itself through various forms and structures, blending order and fluidity in every moment” for his FDCI India Couture Week collection. “This collection blends philosophical, mythological, religious, scientific and cosmological ideas, creating a unique vocabulary for the brand. With ANTEVORTA, we delve into the profound relationship between time and the universe, emphasizing that nothing exists independently of it,” he told Elle.
A designer’s obsession with the supernatural is not as new as we might think. Magic, fantasy and fabulism have always had their place in haute couture. Another Indian master who employs the fantastical concept is Gaurav Gupta. His collection for Haute Couture Week was called Arunodaya, symbolising “the mystical transformation of night into day, symbolising hope, renewal and the endless possibilities that come with every new beginning.”
Similarly, a little-known Indian designer who uses this subversion for wearable garments rather than couture is Ashish Gupta. His political work composed of sequins aims to “disturb and trick the eye, with trompe l’oeil effects and unexpected references.” The designer’s use of sequins to create knitwear, as well as his playful yet seditious take on fashion, introduces a sense of imaginative exploration – qualities that evoke the spirit of magical realism, but in a very artistic and realistic way. “Part of my attraction to sequins is that collision of high and low taste. When I first started designing, they really had this suspicious association with a cocktail dress. I love a bit of bad taste, so that was part of it,” he told The Guardian in 2023.
One of the industry’s strong suits, however, is PELLA. While the designer’s current website is not up and running, founder Priyanka Ella Lorean Lama often appears at offline couture festivals. “I incorporate deliberate imperfections into the design to give an ‘incorrect’ solution to an otherwise correct norm. My patterns are usually developed from a single block of fabric requiring minimal measuring and sewing,” Priyanka told Platform.
The transitional space between magic and realism has been a big part of the haute couture movement and alongside the likes of Cheney Chan, Maison Margiela and Maison Schiaparelli, it becomes a task born of duty to keep an eye out for Indian designers claiming their space in the genre.
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