Dhruv Bandil is a young designer born and brought up in Morena, Madhya Pradesh. His new line draws from his childhood memories of visits to Vrindavan, a town known as the birthplace of Lord Krishna. It is a sacred place for many followers of the Hindu religion and it holds a lot of cultural significance. Dhruv always found it to have heightened celestial energy as he thought of how widows from all over the country, shunned by their family and community, would seek asylum in this town and wait for the day they were reunited with the beloved deity in their afterlife.
Fashion can be about theatrics and eccentricity sometimes but at its foundation, it must be ethereal. Dhruv makes the line between fashion and art almost non-existent in his new collection. In an almost poetic way, he tells the story of the bereaved women who wait stoically for death. A widow’s life is deemed to be without purpose and soulless according to outdated, misogynistic tradition. For them, death is the moment of ultimate euphoria and empowers them by freeing them from their earthly form as they enter into a cascade of celestial energies that exist beyond the physical realm. Dhruv wanted his designs to embody the feeling of experiencing this final moment of release.
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He says, “Right now, I am at a stage where I am developing my aesthetics and pushing boundaries of Indian contemporary art through clothing. Major inspiration in my work comes from the culture I have experienced throughout my childhood living in the Indian countryside. As a designer, I am fierce about my commitment to innovate and conceptualize while challenging human anatomy with hyperbolic silhouettes which provide colorful alternatives to existing realities.” This can be clearly seen in the usage of fractal light and frozen draping in the designs.
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The collection is definitely one-of-a-kind and Dhruv hopes to keep ideating in this authentic and immersive way in all his coming projects. He tells us, “In the future, I want to develop not just a brand but a perspective towards the world that people could experience. The goal is to create an alternate environment that challenges the current industry practices and demonstrates the power of clothing that can become an individual’s identity.”
Keep an eye out for more of his work on his Instagram.
