Backstage at Dhruv Kapoor’s spring show, five crisp, all-white cotton samples hung neatly on a rack beside the designer’s mood board.
Pristine and still carrying the scent of freshly laundered fabric, the lineup — a kurta shirt-tunic, a bandhgala jacket, a pair of briefs, a petticoat, and a tank top with a squared neckline — oozed familiarity.
Archetypal Indian wardrobe pieces, as the designer explained, they ruled his creative process, serving as the foundation for the 40 looks paraded down the sand-covered runway.
Tied together by the attitude — a little Millennial cool, a little BCBG — and the designer’s distinctive flair for embroidery, the lineup mostly struck a balance between homage and evolution. It also suggested that Kapoor is refreshingly embracing a more refined and elevated take on cool, youthful dressing.
Tank top-like minidresses were covered in beadwork; petticoats morphed into draped full skirts embroidered with floral motifs; ankle-length pencil skirts were paired with relaxed mannish shirts, and fluid tailoring was elevated with exquisite chain belts strung with dangling rhinestones. Menswear looks echoed that sensibility, for example in the nonchalant ease of a tailored brown pant and striped shirt ensemble, the latter featuring a draped collar inspired by the traditional dupatta scarf.
Elsewhere, jarring juxtapositions of prints — think floral embroidery over vichy checks or outsized block print-style patterns on denim — sidetracked the collection’s cohesiveness, more of a reminder of Kapoor’s streetwear-inflected designs with which he joined the Milan fashion scene seasons ago.
These pieces remain Kapoor’s bread-and-butter, sales-wise, but he’s determined not to let them stifle his creative evolution.
“We started a new vertical, which is Kapoor 2.0 — for all the younger, hyped elements that we still have,” he explained.