Designers need to find a new vocabulary for textiles, says Urvashi Kaur

Sheer, pleated kota doria pants, layered jamdani tunics, a sari blouse worn with pants or a leheriya dress—Urvashi Kaur’s presentation at the recently concluded Lakme Fashion Week, in collaboration with the Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI), was a study in the “less is more” design vocabulary.

Known for her gender-fluid garments that put form and functionality first, the Delhi-based designer celebrated 15 years in the fashion industry with the collection Praña on 14 March in Mumbai. The collection, which reimagined ancestral heirlooms as new silhouettes, included light, breezy shirt dresses, tunics and overlays, made using handwoven chanderi organzas, cottons and silks, and embellished with shibori, kantha stitch and brocades. To ensure zero-waste in the collection, Urvashi employed rafu (darning) techniques, panelling and micro pleating. 

“In India, you want your fabrics to allow the air to move from within… you want to be able to move,” the designer told Lounge after the presentation. “I love texture and creating more textural pieces with silhouettes to add dimension.” 

She explained her point with an example: a sari blouse styled with fitted pants that was worn by digital content creator Kayaan Contractor for the runway presentation. “Designers need to find a new vocabulary for textiles, especially Indian textiles, and facilitate people to imagine different ways of making fashion their own, whether someone wants to wear something body hugging or flowy,” she said. 

Urvashi Kaur’s love for reimagining vintage textiles, without the use of too much colour or embellishments, comes from having lived across the world. “I have lived a lot abroad, and travelled to the remotest places because of my army father. Growing up, I didn’t have any other distractions other than experiencing work in handicrafts and interacting with communities where we lived,” said Kaur, 50. 

Another big source of inspiration is her mother, a painter, who walked the runway for her show as well. “My mother used to paint local residents a lot, so I have grown up engaging with a lot of people from different walks of life and observing their sense of dressing up,” said Urvashi Kaur. “It’s so easy to stop and observe in India. We were shooting in Jaipur recently and people were sitting and watching the whole thing. Clothes should generate that feeling of curiosity, something we haven’t seen or felt.”

Kaur said her collections will continue to be season- and gender-agnostic, and the digital world has opened more opportunities for her to do work at her own pace, and not create mindlessly just to be relevant. 

“Fashion is not only about a collection and a silhouette, sometimes you need to cut away,” she said. “Clothes will sell if you find the reason why people want to wear them and see that radiate in them.”