HYDERABAD: There hasn’t been a season where designer Payal Singhal hasn’t dipped into her repository of childhood memories and personal experiences to hone in on a starting point for her collection. It is a known fact that Payal grew up around fashion owing to her parents’ garment export business. But few are aware that art was an integral part of her world too, considering her grandfather was the National Award-winning renowned artist JP Singhal. Under his creative influence, Payal’s love affair with the canvas started early on, an innate skill she lost touch with over the years as fashion took over. The pandemic allowed her to return to painting, bringing her immense calm as she put paint to paper. That very feeling spills over to her Winter-Festive 2022 collection Painterly.
“I have approached each outfit like a painting — a sketch that evolves into a silhouette, then layered with fabrics, textures, embellishments and colours; just like multiple strokes come together to create an artwork. I did not abide by any rules of perceived rights or wrongs. Just a whole-heartedly artistic endeavour to enable our PS Girls to express their true selves through these clothes,” says Payal.
As the name suggests, the resort wear and destination wedding-ready collection found inspiration in art — from multi-hued brush strokes and abstract art to miniature Mughal paintings — and translated it into the designer’s signature PS Prints. Payal has also explored the psyche of the young Indian bride of today to create wedding wear to resonate with her, and her coterie of bridesmaids. As a result, the silhouettes span the gamut from anti-fit and oversized to unapologetically sexy. The energy of the collection exudes feminine edge and a deep embrace of one’s sex appeal. The ultimate result is the kind of ensembles you’ll wear as a set come wedding season.
Elaborating about the colours and silhouettes one can expect in the collection, Payal shares, “Our signature silhouettes like kalidar shararas and the tie-back cholis remain a constant, you can expect more experimental and deconstructed Indian wear too, pants with tie-up half lehengas, ruffled blouses, hip cut-outs and festive pant suits.
The embroideries and prints mimic brush strokes, with a palette that uses largely neutral bases punctuated with pops of colour. Zardozi, mukaish and woollen thread work mingle with bandhani textures in this line. We did the collection from start to finish in about two months.”
For the uninitiated, Payal always wanted to be a designer, in fact she drew her first sketch when she was just 11 years old.
While talking about Hyderabad as a fashion hub, Payal says, “The Hyderabad fashion market is very good. They are fashion forward and love to dress up, it’s a flourishing market.” According to the ace designer, the upcoming wedding and festive season will be a great time to mix and match. “Wedding fashion is great fun this season.
Mix and match anything from your wardrobe and with Indian jewellery and accessories you can actually make a great wedding fusion look because everyone is into a more individualistic style so play in your wardrobe and mix your Indian pieces with your western pieces and make some creative looks happen,” she concludes.