HYDERABAD: Shades of India, founded by David Housego and Mandeep Nagi in 2007, is India’s leading fashion and lifestyle brand that offers a range of contemporary textiles that are rich in Indian crafts and weaves. Shades of India recently launched their SS’23 collection - Corsage.
The collection is an ode to nature, restoring the beauty of creation by transforming it to prints. Exploring new styles with bolder colours, crisper silhouettes, and expressive florals Corsage offers a new approach with the silhouettes as smart and comfortable co-ords that find a space in everyone’s wardrobe.
Talking about the inspiration behind the collection, Mandeep Nagi, Creative Director, Shades of India, says, “Our inspiration has been the colours of spring and the vibrancy they exude. The season always ushers in new beginnings and brings about a ray of sunshine peeking from the winter dullness, our vision was to celebrate the vibrancy and joy of the season with our colours, prints and fabrics. The collection features several techniques and colours. Tata kizome is a form of art with hand-beaten flowers to achieve natural organic colours and patterns across the textile. Like a textile art piece it’s a unique and innovative way of developing organic patterns. It’s then translated into 3D forms by various techniques.”
Elaborating more about what sort of fabrics and textiles can be seen in the collection, she adds, “We’ve used an array of fabrics ranging from linen, hand-spun cotton, chanderi fabric with textured detailing have been used extensively to curate the collection.
Alongside the varied textiles, patchwork, smocking and other details have been used to add a 3D characteristic to the fabric. We aim to create designs that showcase the creativity and aesthetic of the brand while having a keen attention to detail. We worked on this collection for about six months until each piece synchronised with our perception of the spring season and everything it brings about.”
Hyderabad is a growing market with great potential for fashion brands, feels Mandeep. “The audience is very keen and accepting of newer brands and the rising demand is very exciting and yields a great response,” she says, adding, “Our journey has been quite interesting with different shades to it. Over the course, we’ve had some great highs and are incredibly grateful to have celebrated the milestones.
We aim to keep curating some great designs and taking the brand legacy forward. As a brand, we are continually looking to grow and expand. At the moment, we are working on new launches like Cinnamon which is the new vertical for contemporary wear made with organic fabrics along with newer collections for our accessories vertical Fig and formal wear line Chinar.”