Blue jean baby

LEE X Suneet Varma's collaboration featuring Sara Ali Khan merges classic denim with Indian couture.

- SONAKSHI SHARMA

Fashion is a polite way to talk about sex," Suneet Varma tells me giddily as he Zooms from his Delhi office. So when this collaboration with American denim giant LEE came around, he wanted to retain the inherent sexiness of his eponymous label and cross the border from Indian couture to create a ready-to wear line-up.

In his body of work spanning over three decades, the designer has developed a thick dossier of collaborations, from home furnishings with Ascent Decor to bejewelled handbags with Judith Leiber. But what makes this fusion with LEE special for Varma is the fact that he's been tasked with injecting a sense of novelty into the utilitarian fabric that's become all too common in our daily style lexicon.