Exclusive: Designers Gauri And Nainika On Their Evergreen Romance With Flowers, Evolution Of Red Carpet Fashion, And Conscious Clothing
Flowers have always been an integral part of designer mood boards. Resting at the core of many of our Indian fashion houses is a tale of flowers and a designer’s romance with them. And while flowers have found a new face, meaning and form on every artist’s canvas, a floral story that we often find ourselves loving, is by designers Gauri and Nainika. Monumental, grand and whimsical, are a few terms that package this relationship that the designers share with flowers. The women behind India’s most popular red carpet looks, and the architects of modern-day Disney princess moment, Gauri and Nainika served us with their signature platter of designs, garnished with dreamy silhouettes at the recently departed season of FDCI X Lakmé Fashion Week. For celebrity designers, the idea of a ballroom gown is yet to leave the shelf, as they arrive with a whole new range of designs. In conversation with me, Gauri and Nainika take us through their latest design mood, evolution of Bollywood red carpet style, tempting trends, sustainable fashion, gender-neutral designs and more.
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Q: What about flowers remains so close to the Gauri & Nainika design ideology?
Gauri And Nainika: Gauri and I have always had a strong affinity towards florals because we have literally grown up in a garden. Both our parents have been avid gardeners and we are lucky to have been exposed to gardening from a very young age. So, it is only natural for florals to have inspired our work in fashion. Our brand being so romantic and feminine, it fits in beautifully and we have always worked with a lot of floral prints and embroideries.
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Q: Tell us about your upcoming collection Midnight Botanica.
Gauri And Nainika: Midnight Botanica, the Spring-Summer 2023 collection by Gauri & Nainika takes a dark and dreamy tone, inspired by the starkly contrasting colours of night-time botanical illustrations. With fluid and breezy styles, the collection includes flowing gowns, languid Grecian high-lows, easy-to-wear airy dresses, jumpsuits, and more red-carpet-worthy silhouettes in signature floral prints flaunting a rich colour palette.
Q: Ballroom gowns and monumental silhouettes have always been a part of your collection, which you often term as–red carpet worthy. How has the red carpet glam changed over the years? What is the one thing that you have noticed celebrities opting for?
Gauri And Nainika: When Gauri and I started out, we did not think if anyone would wear these gowns or not. We just designed what we loved. For our first runway presentation when we put gowns on the ramp, people questioned it and asked–”Who would even wear these?” “This is not relevant to the Indian market.” “No one wears this in India.” But to our surprise, the garments were worn. To start with, they were worn by celebrities, the first amongst them to wear our gowns on the red carpet were Bipasha Basu and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. After that everything happened very quickly for us. Back then, actresses mostly wore traditional Indian clothes on the red carpet, so when they started wearing our gowns, a lot of women noticed and then wanted to wear glamorous gowns as well. We feel really happy that this change came about. Today Indian actresses turn out impeccably on the red carpet. They are at par with international celebrities in terms of their fashion game.
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Q: Your collaboration with R|Elan aims to push the narrative of the green fashion movement. How is eco-conscious clothing finding its way into your collection?
Gauri And Nainika: In a bid to drive the green fashion movement across the fashion world, our collection was created using eco-friendly, sustainable fabrics from R|Elan. These included R|Elan Green Gold which is one of the greenest fabrics made from 100% used PET bottles, deploying efficient and certified manufacturing practices. And what we were most excited to use was R|Elan Eco Gold fabrics that are bio-enhanced to break down into natural elements and play a crucial role in saving fashion waste from piling in landfills.
Q: What is the experience that you hope to offer the wearers of your collection through this collaboration?
Gauri And Nainika: The experience that we hope to give our clients from this collection is one of timelessness and luxury, sustainability and durability. It’s what we aim to achieve through all our collections. Gauri and I always have offered excellent craftsmanship, forming flattering silhouettes and fabrics that feel luxurious on the skin.
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Q: So many celebrities opt for Gauri & Nainika designs for special events. Tell us a recent celebrity look that included a piece from your brand and you loved it.
Gauri And Nainika: Alia Bhatt recently wore a custom gold lame gown of ours to the Time Impact Awards held in Singapore. It was extremely special because she was pregnant and looked positively radiant in it. With its empire-cut silhouette, dramatic cape and pleated skirt, she looked every bit like the Greek goddess.
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Also Read: Exclusive: Designer Anju Modi On ‘Damayanti’ Collection, Comfortable Festive Wear, And Why Slow Fashion Is Still A Luxury
Q: A celebrity name on your bucket list that you hope to see in a Gauri & Nainika outfit?
Gauri And Nainika: Cate Blanchett
Q: Five fashion trends that will headline the trend charts in the coming year?
Gauri And Nainika: First, athleisure. It guarantees one looks great and feels comfortable at the same time. While the silhouettes are sporty, the fabrics bring a luxe element to them. Second corsetry–corsets have made a huge comeback. Modern interpretations and the ability to layer them and mix and match them in a way to create your own style making this timeless piece of clothing extremely versatile. Third, balloon hems. They’re fun and dramatic, one can’t help but stand out in this silhouette. Our favourite and a staple in all our collections over the years since the brand’s beginning–dramatic ruffles, will continue to rule the trend charts as it has for the past few seasons.
Lastly, florals, whether it’s a floral print or floral embroideries, nothing spells feminine glamour as easily as florals.
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Q: Old-school glamour has always been a part of your design mood boards. What is timeless fashion to you?
Gauri And Nainika: Our love for old Hollywood glamour always makes its way into our collections in one way or another. For us, there has never been a time quite as fashionable as the 50s when Dior created the New Look and the golden age of cinema icons such as Rita Hayworth, Ava Gardner, and Grace Kelly, who epitomised high-octane glamour. Even today, people are inspired by it and that is what timeless fashion is all about, it never dates or fails to make a statement. For us timeless fashion is also important because we believe that clothes should possess the ability to be passed down through generations. Not just in terms of quality and craftsmanship but also in terms of style such that it never dates.
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Q: Designers are experimenting with gender neutral designs to cater a wider spectrum of shoppers. Are you looking into something similar?
Gauri And Nainika: We have never really experimented with androgynous styles, although in this day and age all styles are gender-neutral and can be worn by whoever chooses to wear them be it male or female or anyone from the LGBTQIA community.
Q: What are the trends for this season and how have you incorporated them into this collection?
Gauri And Nainika: Though we don’t consciously try to incorporate trends into our collections, trends are important and do end up influencing collections. Today, thanks to social media, everyone is aware of everything and we tend to be inspired by our surroundings, so trends tend to pave their way into most designer collections. Flowing capes, bold prints, big shoulders, lots of volume and drama, and maximalism with a modern edge are some of the trends that are extremely popular these days.
Hauterrfly is delivering all the piping hot updates from the FDCI X Lakmé Fashion Week. Follow our series #HauteFrontRow here and on our Instagram to catch the coverage!
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