Streetwear in India has found its own niche with homegrown labels exploring distinct subcultures, ideas, and identities. Coming with a significant story or message attached to it, streetwear brands always allow you to express yourself. There’s a new slow fashion streetwear label that’s on our radar: Lucknow-based Zero Tolerance. Founded by Prakhar Rao, the brand amalgamates South Asian history and heritage with street culture and aims to make pieces that influence minds.
For Rao, fashion has always been about comfort and communication. “Fashion as a language has been used as a powerful tool to convey messages, and streetwear has become a disruptive force in recent years. Being from a communications background, I chose fashion as my medium to convey stories and thoughts,” he shares.
Prakhar initially worked as a writer for a Sports magazine but felt something was lacking. He wanted to do something different in the field of communication. “I was looking for a medium of my preference. From childhood, I was taught to embrace the cultures. Inspired by the vast diversity of South Asia, I wanted to communicate the beliefs and tales that hold the world’s largest diversity. Together all these factors became the direct influences that led me to start the label Zero Tolerance,” he added.
So what makes Zero Tolerance worth watching out for? ELLE finds out.
1. Highlights Crafts From The Indian Subcontinent And Blends It With Street Culture
From the kind of artwork and aesthetics the label works on to each garment narrating a story of its own and highlighting the locations where the campaigns are shot, Zero Tolerance showcases the various aspects of life in South Asia. “We are looking forward to being heavy on the graphical communication and storytelling. With premium quality fabric and finishes which are sourced from South Asian cities, and the idea of ‘new collection, new city,’ we focus on showcasing the history and heritage of different cities of the subcontinent,” says Prakhar.
“For our debut collection, we chose the city of Lucknow, as this is where the house of Zero Tolerance is situated, and Lucknow has always been an epitome of cultural vastness in Northern India and what could be a better place to start with than your home city,” he adds.
2. Clothing With A Powerful Message
Through its clothing, Zero Tolerance intends to remind us to embrace our roots and flex our culture. Named Proud Browns, the very first collection of Zero Tolerance comes with a visual impact. “The Monaco t-shirt has a patch artwork that communicates a very powerful and relevant message that violence against women must stop. Whereas the Dope yellow tee has a patch that is influenced by the fashion aesthetic of the women in 70s,” shares Rao.
3. Exclusive Pieces
Championing slow fashion at its best, Zero Tolerance makes a limited number of pieces in each collection, which don’t get restocked once sold out. “This is because the house wants to make each piece with love and care, put an equal amount of attention into every single garment. Since the Indian subcontinent has a lot of art forms and tales that are needed to be explored and spoken about, the team looks forward to exploring and sharing it with people,” says Prakhar.
4. Unique Styling
One look at their Instagram page, and you can’t ignore the unusual styling. From draping a saree over a sweatshirt to even wearing a sweatshirt over a kurta, this is what makes the label’s conceptualised pieces even more interesting.
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5. Platform For Storytelling
Taking a step further from just being a streetwear label, Zero Tolerance aims to create a platform that brings together all the artists and individuals to start a conversation and give new opportunities to people who are really into storytelling or fashion.
