5 young Indian designers you should watch out for

For the second time, ELLE and FDCI teamed up to create a platform where young talent could arrive, all guns blazing, onto the fashion landscape. The most promising of these designers made the First Cut 2016 at Amazon India Fashion Week. 

Flip through the gallery to find out more about the class of 2016.

Photographs: Manasi Sawant. Inputs: Devika Wahal

Aniket

With a talent for colour and contrasts and a quirky aesthetic, Aniket Satam makes upbeat clothing by fashioning classic designs into functional shapes and modern silhouettes. The collection is inspired by the 1975 cult documentary Grey Gardens, about two eccentric women who live in a dilapidated mansion with an assortment of cats, a raccoon and other strays. The line uses a fresh palette of periwinkle blue, milky white, poppy red and buttercup yellow. Key details include dandy pinstripes, hand-embroidered cats and botanical drawings.

Flip through the gallery for more.

Mogachea

This collection of Goan designer Tania Fadte’s clothing line Mogachea, ‘beloved’ in Konkani, is comprised entirely of contemporary silhouettes. The patterns were inspired by her two-year-old daughter’s obsession with stippling and polka dots and rendered in organic cotton and fabrics hand-dyed in natural indigo. Techniques like hand-block-printing and handloom weaving were used to create this collection. 

Flip through the gallery for more.

Anomaly

Designer Medha Khosla enjoys using breathable fabrics such as linen, cotton and silks and making them luxe with superior finishing details. For this collection, she took comfy separates for work and travel, and gave them modern, minimal and feminine silhouettes. Each of these ready-to-wear pieces is fuss-free and versatile. Think shirts, dresses, blazers and jumpsuits in a palette of understated blues, tan and whites, with the occasional stripes or checks. 

Flip through the gallery for more.

Bias

Aiming to reduce their carbon footprint, designers Mridu Mehra and Shruti Bhardwaj started experimenting with yarn made from recycled plastic bottles and fabric cut-offs to produce handmade textures. Their raw, unconventional designs and surface techniques are the label’s USP. This collection, 'Unknown Remedy', is inspired by the Japanese art of Wabi-sabi, which celebrates beauty that’s imperfect, impermanent and incomplete. The line uses unbleached organic cotton gauze in an un-dyed cream palette to make chinos, tunics and tie-up corsets. 

Flip through the gallery for more.

Guapa

Founder Reby Kumar describes her label as “downtown nonchalance meets minimal chic”.  The brand projects a relaxed vibe with its effortless, comfortable and fun clothes. The recent collection’s summer-loving spirit shows itself in light layers, bright colours and easy, 1920s-style silhouettes.