Couturier Urvashi Kaur celebrates 15 years in fashion at Lakmé Fashion Week 

To Urvashi, textiles are meant to tell stories of cultures. “I incorporate a new craft language every year,” she says. Urvashi likes to add modern spins to traditional textiles and techniques. For instance, she brings a geometric arch to block-printing. “In Prana, showcased at Lakme Fashion Week along with other collections curated over 15 years, I worked with tissue and metallic yarn woven in Chanderi, and merged it with jamdani. On the ramp, the collections celebrated lehariya done with kota doriya, a sheer tent dress with chaap silai, metallic block prints, hand-woven denims, Kutch weaves with kala cotton and Maheshwari weaves; you will also find a lot of micro-pleating with kantha stitch,” she says.

In 2008, when Urvashi Kaur started her label, after working with fashion designer Neeta Paul and completing a fashion course in Paris, she made her debut in the Indian fashion industry with Lakmé Fashion Week. This year marks her 15th year at the bi-annual gala.

Her showcase, Voices of Urvashi Kaur, echoes the brand’s subversion of societal constructs and commitment to being democratic, what she calls a creative disruption of sorts. “As an Army kid, I grew up in the remotest places of India, and even in Algeria for some time. So, I interacted with Nature, diverse communities, tribal people and their culture. My parents have adopted and fostered two children — a Christian boy from Nagaland and Hindu boy from Kashmir; they are my half-brothers. All these influences of inclusivity and growing up in a democratic space have shaped my sensibilities,” says the Delhi-based couturier.

She outlines the bridal and trousseau fashion that dominated Indian runways in the 1990s — with designers like Ritu Kumar, Tarun Tahiliani and Rohit Bal — stating that she wanted her garments to be minimalistic while championing textured textiles with craft details that focussed on assimilation rather than standing out as statement pieces. This defines the core of all her designs, including latest collection Prana (on which she started working in June last year), which was displayed among her older edits at the recently held fashion week. “Japanese aesthetics sat well with me when I was interning at the Paris Fashion Week back in 1996-97. So, my designs are focussed on functionality and comfort while exploring different yarns, heirloom textiles and age-old techniques of dyeing, block-printing and weaving,” she says.

In Prana, tailored, timeless separates come together as layers with sheer and opaque dichotomies. Relaxed, signature androgynous shirt dresses, tunics and fluid overlays pair further embody the classic trans-seasonal Urvashi Kaur aesthetic. Exquisite tissue silks, zari kota and zari tussars, brocades and textural patchwork imbue a festive luster in the collection’s fluid staples, co-ords, dresses and melange of protean separates.

To Urvashi, textiles are meant to tell stories of cultures. “I incorporate a new craft language every year,” she says. Urvashi likes to add modern spins to traditional textiles and techniques. For instance, she brings a geometric arch to block-printing. “In Prana, showcased along with other collections curated over 15 years, I worked with tissue and metallic yarn woven in Chanderi, and merged it with jamdani. On the ramp, the collections celebrated lehariya done with kota doriya, a sheer tent dress with chaap silai, metallic block prints, hand-woven denims, Kutch weaves with kala cotton and Maheshwari weaves; you will also find a lot of micro-pleating with kantha stitch,” she adds of the designs sported on the ramp by celebrities such as Ratna Pathak Shah, Rasika Duggal, Tilotama Shome, and more.

Urvashi also explores textile revival and sustainability, and started zero-waste practices and upcycling techniques with Renew Project in 2021. The garments made at the time were exhibited on the Lakmé Fashion Week ramp too. “In my childhood, my mother, who is an artist, would turn army trunks into settees while accentuating them with durries. So, reinventing came naturally. I collect old Benarasi saris, which have the suchha zari (pure silver and gold threads), sold to vendors. In these worn-out saris, I find patches which are intact and in mint condition. I cut and paste these patchworks to make trench coats, blazers and overlays etc. while accentuating them with stitch-line work, reinforcing textiles,” she shares.

Apart from archival textiles, Urvashi also uses leftover lehariya, zari gotas and tissues to make an ensemble. It was first showcased in her 2021 collection called Illahi. For now, the designer is busy with her new edit, which will be launched next month. “The new edit is expressed in a palette of pastels. It features checks and stripes, a highly linear selection of motifs. True to our craft-centric techniques, the collection uses jamdani weaves, shibori tie and dye and hand-block prints on a canvas of artisanal textiles like linen, organdy, mulberry silks, mulmul, khadi and kota dorias,” she says, adding that the summer exclusive will introduce the brand’s timeless, signature silhouettes in new fabrics and colour ways.