HYDERABAD: An aesthetic fashion boutique with vibrant architecture and outfits that blend perfectly with the latest trends. Renowned designers Abraham & Thakore have opened their store in Hyderabad and CE hears all about it from them.
About the new store and the city of Hyderabad, David said, “We are very excited to be here, we love the location, and we love where we are. We love the city and the biryani. The talented architects have done a great job with the store, which tells the whole story to people.”
The store showcased some amazing collections that the two designers worked on, keeping in mind the season and trends. “The new collection is called Parallel World and this has been launched in all our stores. It plays with form and elements like lines, stripes and checks, very much a part of A&T design language. We maintain consistency in design language,” Rakesh emphasised.
Dressed in black and white, they looked handsome, like two classy gentlemen. On their obsession with the colours, David said that during designing, creating patterns and drawing, the planning and plotting can be clearly done in black and white. “You can study the definition, the balance and proportions of a form. B/W is fundamental. If you add too much colour, these have many emotions and sometimes the message can be a little confusing.”
Speaking about their journey, David said, “All the garments at the front are from the archives and not for sale. We curated them in 2010 and got them here for the opening especially for Hyderabad. These are the key designs of A&T’s runway collections, showing the different techniques and ideas that we had over the years.” Pointing to a saree, David said, “The first saree was acquired by the Victoria And Albert Museum for their permanent collection.” He then went on to show another outfit, a sustainability design where every sequence was made with X-rays. “Everything is about an investigation into a new technique. When we were recycling, we wanted to create something using waste. So, we went to hospitals, picked up those X-rays and cut them into sequences. If you look closer you can see figures. Each one has worked with different ideas,” David added.
Regarding the time taken to get all of these together into a design, Rakesh said, “It takes time. We worked with ragpickers who collected it for us.”
The two designers have done a lot of handloom work too. “We started with handlooms. At the same time we also focus on industrial fabrics. We worked with handloom clusters in southern AP and Telangana and also worked with weavers in Banaras, Maheshwar in Maharashtra, and West Bengal too. It changes from season to season,” Rakesh said.
On working with the weavers of Telangana, Rakesh pointed to a saree and mentioned, “The first saree, a double Ikkat saree, is also the V&A woven by the famous Gajam Govardhana. In fact, I have learned Ikkat from him. He understands the whole process and it makes it easy for us. When we get something complicated he is actually the first person to help us.”
Keeping up with trends and also commenting on fast fashion, David says, “We don’t believe in fast fashion. This might sound like a cliché but we believe in style. We talk about sustainability and responsibility, which means clothes that last.”
There are so many ways to showcase style. For the designer duo, it means something different, with Rakesh saying, “Style means clothes that last and being elegant.”
About social media and fashion influencers, David said that it is wonderful that everybody is in touch with everybody. “I think style is about always being appropriate and having good manners. It is not just about a new dress from Zara.”
He added that the duo draws inspiration from pretty much everything, such as the streets, music, movies, paintings or travel destinations. Rakesh was all praise for Hyderabad, saying, “It has a different style, it is quite amazing. We had a pleasant experience here.”
The designers had much to say about what constitutes fashion. To David, fashion is about finding ways to communicate. He said, “What you wear is how you and the world see you.” Rakesh defined it differently, concluding, “Fashion is a non-verbal language, it’s talking without words.”