The rules of ready-to-wear today are very different,” says Nikhil Mehra, one half of designer duo Shantanu & Nikhil, over a conference call on the eve of their label’s first anniversary. “Within seconds of your hands and body slipping into an outfit, the fabric should return to its original form,” he says of the guiding MO behind their bridge-to-luxury label S&N by Shantanu & Nikhil that launched in March last year. Just as the world declared a pandemic, and amid lockdowns and delays, the designers not only launched the label, but by August opened two stores in Delhi and a fully functioning online shop.
Already leading the conversation in couture, the co-conspirators wanted to mirror the customised care and craft of couture in their ready-to-wear repertoire. The similarities are all there—pared-back minimalism, enveloping drapes and gender fluidity. But for S&N, the duo harnessed their couture expertise to bend gender constructs and reimagine their signature aesthetic for Gen-Z sartorialists.
This story is from the April 2021 edition of VOGUE India.
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This story is from the April 2021 edition of VOGUE India.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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