It’s the age of agelessness. The realm of fashion is calling for serious inclusiveness and democratisation as the older demographic wants to remain as much on trend as their younger counterparts. Most recently, it was Shweta Bachchan Nanda who boarded the ‘age no bar’ bandwagon through her maiden line of clothing, MxS. “You don’t need to be a certain age to wear a particular garment. My clothing blurs stereotypical boundaries and presents garment that you can borrow from your daughter, or the other way round. They are age-unspecific,” she says.
Her words were lucidly put in the context of her design ideology when she made an entrance wearing a pair of shimmery, blue suede velvet pants and a casual grey T-shirt for our interview meeting. “Fashion is becoming all-encompassing and freeing. There are fewer codes to follow. It’s amazing to see how athleisure clothing can be worn to the workplace, how a T-shirt, such as the one I am wearing, can be worn for a work meeting, and how loose pants can be worn to a party. There is more ambiguity which brings in experimentalism,” she says.
Her ideas are tangibly reinforced through her new brand, that she launched in collaboration with fashion designer Monisha Jaising. It’s Shweta’s design aesthetics that seamlessly meets Monisha’s technical prowess. Together, they embrace the juvenescence in fashion.
The new line comes at a time when shoppers are ready for a liberal shift. The 40s and 50s are not the new 20s. They are what they are—an age segment with its own identity. “I am 44, and I have never felt as unrestricted about clothing as I do now. I can put on a T-shirt as comfortably as I can wear a short dress. A skirt feels just as right as shorts,” says Shweta.
In their maiden collection, the duo has amalgamated every bit of their non-conformist streaks. You see this in the sequinned, rainbow-striped track-pants, luxe sweatshirts with catchwords such as Airplane Mode embroidered. You also have a hip-hop, futuristic expression in the black leather skirt with lace tie-ups on the side. There are metallic skirts, crochet dresses, doodle skirt, dover sets, bomber jackets, tunics and more. “Each garment is symbolic of what we believe in, every motif has meaning and every design has a story,” says Monisha, adding, “Most importantly, it’s who Shweta really is—fun, free and inspired.”
It all started with a fleeting discussion over a party outfit between Shweta and her. One thing led to another and the two of them worked out a new clothing line. At first, the idea of a capsule collection was floated, but both realised that it would just come and go. A label, on the other hand, would stay. “The prospects of working with her were incredibly exciting. As she doesn’t come with a design degree, there were no pre-conceived notions,” says Monisha.
Also, the time was ripe to introduce her own collection, says Shweta. “In your 40s, when your children are away from home and everything else is on auto pilot, I had begun to wonder what is one’s life purpose? I found myself doing a lot more than I had thought. Age is no limit to start something new, and that’s exactly what I’ve done with MxS,” she says.
Shweta’s tryst with fashion goes back to her school days and all that she learnt then came in handy now. When she was in boarding school, she would come home for summer vacations and intern with fashion designers Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla. She would watch them sketch and create designs. Along with that, her mother too, she says, has a very strong design aesthetic that she’s inherited.The label will focus on four collections every year in all sizes starting from XS going up to 2XL. It will be retailed at Monisha Jaising stores in Mumbai and Delhi, and soon, an MxS e-commerce website will be introduced for international clients. Price ranges from `8,000 to `70,000.