Gen Next designers raise social issues with debut show at LFW

Lakme Fashion Week Winter/Festive 2017 opened today on a powerful note with Gen Next designers addressing social issues like human trafficking, abuse, gender biases and illiteracy through their designs.
The young brigade included designers Akshat Bansal, Simiran Kabir Sharma, Deepak Pathak, along with designer duos Saaksha Parekh-Kinnari Kamat and Shenali Seema-Rinzin Lama.
The five budding labels, which made their runway debut courtesy INIFD, had varied inspirations, but the theme of women with strong sense of self, was common in all the presentations.
"I come from Himachal and my mother is my biggest inspiration. As a child, I have seen her wearing sarees with shoes and hence for me there is no difference in men and women's clothing.

"I feel we don't need to talk about equality as they are already superior to us. The voice of the my label will always be same. I will always try and focus on the real life issues through my designs," Sumiran told PTI.
For his LFW collection, the designer drew inspiration from Sonagachi, the red-light district in Kolkata.

The major attraction of his line, apart from the clothes, were the shoes raising issues like trafficking and abuse.
"The idea of putting these demons on the shoes comes from the vision of eradicating them and moving forward," he added.
Adding on to the theme was the designer duo Saaksh and Kinni. Their collection was based on warrior women like Tomoe Gozen. Their clothes were for women who know how to balance grace with grit.

"We all are about strong women, but at the same time we are not saying that strong women need to dress up like men to feel the power. Our idea is to showcase the feminine side with a touch strength," Saaksh said.
Deepak, who hails from Varanasi, said his collection was inspired by his childhood memories of sitting on the ghats and watching fishermen. The range was full of greys and blacks.
Akshat did have some edgy designs for women, but he also focused on menswear. His monochrome collection was inspired by his trip to Himalayas.
This was the 24th batch of Gen Next designers. In the past, these shows have brought forth great fashion talents like Nachiket Barve, Rahul Mishra, Aneeth Arora, Kallol Datta and Ujjawal Dubey.

Celebrity fashion designers Manish Malhotra and Ashley Rebello were present at the show.