Istituto Marangoni presents ELLE Graduates 2022 in association with Crocs. A celebration of the future of Indian fashion, ELLE Graduates, is an annual event held to recognise India’s young and upcoming designers. Acting as a platform for emerging talent, it gives homegrown brands a chance to showcase their creations and be mentored by the best minds in the industry.
Our grooming partner for ELLE Graduates 2022 is Daniel Bauer Academy.
We bring you the nominees for each of our five categories.
Designer of the Year – Ready To Wear (Western)
ADVAIT
The brand believes in pushing boundaries with every collection by bridging the gap between fine art and fashion with unique prints and an impeccable sense of colour and texture.
AKHL aims to craft evocative pieces by contemporising traditional hand-crafting techniques. Their designs are all rooted in the development of distinctive and complex textiles and are engineered using unconventional materials and a wide range of processes.
CORPORA STUDIO
Corpora Studio is a Delhi-based brand that runs on the ideology of rewriting the fashion rules, making designer clothes not just more affordable but also more accessible to women in a range of different sizes, and paying attention to environmental responsibility in the process.
Dhruv's South Asian culture and history, particularly his origins in a rural Indian milieu, are reflected in the brand. The label aims to develop and imagine while pushing human anatomy with hyperbolic shapes that provide colourful alternatives to existing reality.
A pandemic baby, Drawn focuses on creating a timeless wardrobe with a twist. With limited edition prints, and trans-seasonal standout statement pieces, Drawn aims at disrupting high-street fashion practices with a focus on conscious consumption, a preorder shopping model to regulate production and limited runs of wearable art at affordable price points.
META MANTHAN
Manthan represents abstract India and its growing megalopolis, where the variety of languages, faiths, cultures, beliefs, clothes, colours, emotions, body and skin complexions overlap and coexist in harmony.
The label aims to celebrate art in every form, be it paintings, architecture, installations or murals. It’s meant for bold modern individuals who know what they want and are free-spirited, inspired, and unrestrained. Following the vision of renowned artist M.F. Hussain, the brand aims to make art accessible.
Polite Society is an amalgamation of meticulous tailoring and oversized, relaxed silhouettes. The idea behind the brand is to stir a candid conversation with its audience, which may not always be polite by society’s standards. Founded in 2020, the label's aesthetics are conversational, bold, functional and relaxed.
Conceived with a vision to build a brand with a strong understanding of design, an appreciation and love for fashion and the goal of creating a new experience when it comes to wearing luxury, Ra symbolises the sun and that everyone has a place under it.
ROCH STUDIO
Roch, as a brand, believes that colours and clothes have no gender. Playing with silhouettes and colours to take you back into a time, Roch is a niche luxury fashion label for anyone and everyone.
The brand creates contemporary, cutting-edge pieces that showcase delicate detailing and impeccable technique packed with the ‘oomph’ factor. From beautifully sculpted gowns to cocktail dresses with intricate details, their aesthetic is about using contemporary modules to strike a graceful balance between creating chic yet edgy couture with unconventional, fashion-forward elements.
Designer of the Year – Ready To Wear (Indian)
CHANDRIMA
The label celebrates diversity in cultures and craft forms by creating womenswear for the urban woman of today. The brand embodies the idea of India itself. It is a blend of Indian handloom and craft, an international style that stands for modern elegance and craftsmanship, stemming from the diversity and unity of the country.
DHOOPDI
As a contemporary clothing brand, Dhoopdi seeks to create its language to present traditional handwoven textiles to the global consumer. Dhoopdi champions conscious creation; hence, each collection is envisioned with myriad strips of handwoven textile joined to create a new zero-waste pattern and keeping in mind circularity at its end-of-use, which they achieve by unsewing these strips to create new garments again.
The brand works with zeal and conviction to find the right reasons to ponder over its glorious and historical past. It is with this passion that they try tracing back their ever-enchanting history and magical moments that take them back in time. At Nishar Ahmed designs, the brand humbly tried to keep in mind the noble idea of reinventing age-old, archaic and undocumented traditional fashion and craftsmanship with a contemporary twist.
RE
The brand has taken the initiative to bring back a sense of respect and consciousness to the way modern humans consume clothing. While constantly exploring more considerate ways of constructing garments and embracing the use of recycled textiles, they have approached recycling at the grass root level and spent many years testing and honing their fabrics with a vision to craft garments that embody a sense of value, kindness and belonging.
The brand places the confluence of tradition and trends into the spotlight of the current fashion language. They delve deep into the roots of cultures and authentic practices of crafts that are dwindling and infuse them with the hype of today, creating a lasting style that resonates with the youth. Their products are a statement of memorabilia of the past, modified for the present and a promise of transformation in the future.
An Indian-based clothing label with a range of timeless and effortless womenswear featuring exceptional colours and prints, using the beauty found in bodily textures as a design inspiration. The brand infuses a sense of simplicity, comfort and poise into everything it does, proudly creating its own distinct identity.
Designer of the Year – Fashion Accessories & Jewellery
AMALGAM
The brand not only creates beautiful, sustainable clothes but also enlightens its customers on the importance of slow fashion and circular living. Each of their creation is designed to be an everlasting classic piece that could be worn and re-worn multiple times. Their jewellery collections consist of carefully handcrafted pieces with a story behind each design they create.
At the heart of Hogwash is innovation. The brand goes by the philosophy based on Aristotle's ‘First thinking principle’, which suggests that every complex problem should be broken down to its simplest form to find path-breaking solutions. Hogwash’s accessory category consists of one of the most environmentally sustainable footwear collections.
While focusing on creating out-of-the-box designs and manufacturing them while keeping costs low, all the brand designs are limited edition and handcrafted. The brand focuses on creating something exciting and always tries to reach the expectations of highly fashion-conscious discerning clients wherever they may be located in the new global village.
Lunaya is a fine and Demi-fine jewellery label. Creating modern, fuss-free, stackable pieces, the brand is inspired by classics and driven to create modern jewellery that can be incorporated into everyday life. Blurring the lines, their unique enamel pieces are a perfect way to elevate your looks. Playing with shapes, sizes, colours, and metal is their forte, all of which is done in-house at a family-run factory in Jaipur, Rajasthan.
Being inspired by Indian embroidery and embellishments, the brand tries to skillfully utilise the eternal charm of Indian embroidery in each of its collections. All their pieces are fabric-based, wherein they blend the old traditional work with the new, experimenting with styles and surfaces.
Started in 2021 as a dream of a college student, the brand has an audience of more than 4,500 individuals. Aiming to establish itself as a luxury jewellery brand in India, Naaz has its own manufacturing set-up based in Jaipur, Rajasthan. The brand's jewellery is crafted by some of the finest artisans from West Bengal. At present, the brand delivers statement products pan India.
The brand's jewellery collections are designed to be comfortable, compact and complete as they should be while stretching beyond what is deemed conservative, conventional and compulsory. ‘NO.NA.MÉ’s unique identity comes from its design language that uses modular, detachable elements that, when combined interchangeably, create multiple wearable design creations. The design concept stems from the idea that creating ‘fewer’ pieces that give ‘more’ design options is in the right direction to providing sustainable solutions.
The reason behind naming the brand ODE Jewels is a dedication to relationships, art, love, beauty, nature and skill. They draw inspiration from nature, its plants, animals, and organic shapes and colours. Their identification lies in detailing and excellent craftsmanship with immense emotional value.
STEM as a brand has adopted an ethical approach to the leather accessory supply chain while also uplifting its long-standing traditions and instilling respect for the raw beauty of Indian crafts. In the spirit of slow fashion, all STEM products are made to order, and every product reflects exquisite craftsmanship, responsible sourcing, and modern choices.
With the brand’s diverse upbringings and experiences amidst the world's chaos, they aim to find peace in the timeless things that stay with them. Their aesthetic plays upon clean lines and long-lasting designs. Everything that’s designed is done with the thought that they enhance and complement personal styles. Representing a narrative of being delightfully silent with their style but quite noticeable with their size is what makes Tann-ed and the aesthetic crucial to their core beliefs.
TWIRKY TORQUE
With a promise to serve the latest trendy ornaments on the client's demand, their products are detailed and designed keeping the boldness, the quirk and, most importantly, are very personalised.
Designer of the Year – Men’s Wear
ALTER-X
Alter-X is a community of free thinkers, free movers and free spirits. It is undefined and un-confined, an ‘alter space’ where flowers grow and music flows. An existence for those who rebel against the norms of society, and those who offer an alter-vision while still belonging to it.
ANANYA THE LABEL
At Ananya The Label, they create art. The idea is to make clothes that move with you and compliment you by highlighting who you already are and what you stand for. Thus, genderless clothing is at the core of their brand philosophy. They strive to be the flag bearers of the slow lifestyle; they don’t maintain any stocks, and each piece is created on order.
ASHAY
The eponymous brand represents the pursuit of elegance and perfection. The aesthetic cuts across both millennials and Gen Z, the man in the boardroom and the man at the party, while keeping each piece uniquely designed and conceptualised. Like the modern-day man, the designs are authentic and edgy, yet timeless. Every garment of his is a surreal experience wrapped inside an enigma, made with extreme care and artistry.
BE ONE OF A KIND
BE ONE OF A KIND comes from a place of constantly being told to fit into labels and follow certain rules. It is solely born of “I wish I could get something that made me feel what I want to feel”. The brand believes in freedom of expression. It gives people something that can make them feel like themselves, where they don’t have to compromise or get told that “this is not possible”.
COUNTRYMADE
The brand embarked on its journey into the business of fashion in October 2019. With thought-provoking narratives around the military, it takes a contemporary approach to design while preserving the artisanal strength of the Indian craftsman. Countrymade embodies a strong belief in the power of community and brotherhood. The core philosophy is to integrate the responsible selection of natural textiles into the ethical production of conscious products that would withstand time.
Kissa-goi translates to storytelling. The brand aims to weave stories into the products they create. It is a modern, gender-neutral brand focusing on hand-crafted pieces. Their goal is to create pieces that live not only in their clients' wardrobes but more in their tales, travels and, eventually, their legacy. They create timeless pieces that celebrate a more inclusive future and the joy of owning less and treasuring what we own.
MAISON AUDMI
Maison Audmi began as a desire to destigmatize the idea of the man in a dress. A combination of the Hindi words aurat (woman) and aadmi (man), the label is a tongue-in-cheek homage to androgyny in menswear. Challenging the codes of masculinity in menswear is the first of many steps taken by the brand to live in a future where clothing stores present garments based on body shapes and size rather than gender.
MARGN
The brand’s mission is to bring unconventional, everyday cultures to the forefront. They emphasise making things by hand. Their approach has been to create a synthesis of crafts and technology by infusing traditional craftsmanship into modern, functional garments.
The brand creates functional and fun apparel products for audiences who relish art. The brand is here to entertain and educate them. The brand's identity is to keep true to menswear and its construction while finding space within to break the rules.
The brand creates looks for anyone who wants to break barriers using fashion as their language. They curate bespoke vacation edits that are seasonless and non-conventional. Each piece is an amalgamation of retro charisma fused with contemporary bohemian, letting the clothes speak for themselves.
With the vision of creating a safe space outside gender and societal norms, Balav is a luxury street fashion house with an aim to normalise experimenting. Each article of clothing is made in light of a story that draws its inspiration from daily life and incorporates a wild presence of the daily streets.
Designer of the Year – Sustainable wear
The brand's philosophy is to bring people close to nature with simple solutions found in natural colours and sustainable organic materials. As timeless and unique as nature, their designs are not limited to a particular season, yet each piece is unique. The vision is to design and craft sustainable pieces that not only feel good but look good too. By using sustainable materials and components and producing long-lasting quality artisanal designs, they hope to reduce environmental impact.
DHOOPDI
As a contemporary clothing brand, Dhoopdi seeks to create its own language to present traditional handwoven textiles to the global consumer. Dhoopdi champions mindful creation; hence, each collection is envisioned with myriad strips of handwoven textile joined to create a new zero-waste pattern and also keeping in mind circularity at its end-of-use, which they achieve by unsewing these strips to create new garments again.
HESS
Hess is a conscious luxury label by the Brazilian designer Francieli Hess. Exploring the power of femininity through bold and sensual silhouettes, their collections are crafted for the modern globetrotter and designed to embody the principles of social sustainability from end to end. Natural fibres, hand block printing, embroidery and khadi fabrics are the main components of the brand’s aesthetic.
A slow fashion knitwear brand that explores the symbiotic relationship with nature, the brand ethos is to create valuable, timeless pieces while working with their local artisans and bringing life to the fading handicraft culture of India. Made to be worn and re-worn over the years, Meko aims to create wardrobe essentials that you can cherish for a lifetime by marrying artisanal craftsmanship and timeless silhouettes.
TERRA TRIBE
Terra Tribe, as a brand, designs contemporary clothing for people who are mindful of their impact on the planet. With the brand's motto being, “We intend to leave the planet in a better condition than we found it'', they focus immensely on the longevity of clothing, thereby reducing carbon footprints. Their collections are timeless, minimal, chic and everyday classics. The collections are 100 per cent plant-based and cruelty-free, approved by PETA.
Space is a ready-to-wear slow fashion brand that embodies the courage and conviction of like-minded thinkers who create and contribute. Through the combination of sustainable textiles and eco-friendly processes, the brand creates meaning behind every piece of clothing worn several times. By entwining clothes with expressions, Space embraces individuals with all their beauty. Conscious of its carbon footprint, each piece is cut-to-order, manufactured locally, and constructed to last.
STUDIO RIGU
Transcending trends, independent and modern, the brand provides transformative clothes to meet the everyday needs of the globetrotting woman. They create everyday luxury with a modern sensibility, known for its calculated yet eccentric minimalism and thoughtful detailing. Inspired by the amalgamation of multiple genres, cultures, and deep-rooted psychological traditions to create an eclectic blend of eccentricity and convention, spiced with a contemporary twist on individuality.
