Samant Chauhan opens Amazon India Fashion Week

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Mar 15, 2018

Samant Chauhan opened this season of Amazon India Fashion Week (AIFW) on March 14 with his latest collection, “It’s a Glitch”.

AIFW kicked off its autumn/winter edition on March 14 at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Stadium and Samant Chauhan was the first designer to unveil his latest collection on the runway at 3:30pm that day. The collection, entitled “It’s a Glitch”, explored colour blindness and was choreographed by Anu Ahuja with sound by Gautam Kaul to create a full sensory experience.

Chauhan’s monochrome collection featured both men’s and womenswear and, despite or perhaps because of the lack of colour, had a strong dramatic effect. Day wear for both men and women played with drapery and was loose yet luxe. The evening wear had sharper tailoring and women’s gowns were floor length; heavily embellished with elaborate floral motifs.

The show’s concept was inspired by the colour blind painter Jonathan I and Chauhan’s own experience with darkness.

“Colour blindness is not brain damage or a limiting condition. It is a lens of resilience from which we courageously leave the comfort of colour to enter into a leaden world defined only by tonalities and sharpness,” said Chauhan on social media, explaining his inspiration this season.

“This challenge is courage and with this, we take it as a condition of life for the very brave who can bear the monotony of black and white and see in its contrast, the world in its full measure.”

Samant Chauhan graduated from New Delhi’s National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) with a post-graduate diploma in 2004 when he also won awards for “most innovative fabric development” and “best design collection” for his graduating show.

Chauhan has shown collections internationally including in Singapore and Sri Lanka. The brand is based in New Delhi and also retails from its own e-commerce store.