Designer Dhruv Kapoor is unfazed by the mayhem of Men’s Fashion Week in Milan. The city almost like home for Kapoor after becoming the first Indian designer to stage a menswear show at Milan Fashion Week, in June 2022. Ever since he launched his namesake label in 2013, the designer has been making headlines for his vibrant and striking designs, first at Lakmé Fashion Week in 2014, and across the world ever since, winning the Young Designer Award by Camera della Moda, Italy, in 2019 and GQ India’s Most Influential Young Indians in 2022.
For his fall/winter 2024-2025 coed collection at Milan Men’s Fashion Week, Kapoor sought to create a utopian world where opposites collided with harmony, peace, balance, and love triumph above all, a thought that is very much needed, looking at the current state of affairs in the world. Was it a political statement that the designer was trying to make with his art? You would think so as models strutted on a runway that was turned into a running track, wearing jerseys and sweatshirts with “One World,” or “Better Together” sprawled across it.
The Delhi-based designer also took a crack at Blokecore, a social media trend and aesthetic that gives a new spin to sportswear, particularly football. Kapoor combined sport, utility, couture and tailoring seamlessly as one, exemplified by traditional textiles that were reimagined with the help of enhanced structures like in neo-suiting where neoprene is infused into sharp tailoring and liquid lame biker jackets.
Fittingly enough, the collection also marked a collaboration between Kapoor and sportswear giant Nike, where the NIFT graduate repurposed and reimagined deadstock clothing into patchwork jerseys, hooded vests and short jackets. In a quick interaction, the designer spoke about his inspirations, his love for Milan (Kapoor got his masters from Istituto Marangoni in Milan) and how he plans to celebrate 10 years of his brand.
Your previous collection drew inspiration from 1970s sci-fi elements, while this collection brings the idea of two opposing worlds coming together harmoniously. You draw from a lot of larger-than-life concepts. How do you translate such abstract concepts into your collection?
Unison is key, and I believe that more so today at a human level above all. The fall/winter 2024 collection is our projection of a metaphor to tread the fine line where two polar worlds collide by bringing couture with sports, maximalism with minimalism, giant with petite, vibrancy with dullness.
‘Blokecore’ is a major theme of your collection. How have you given this trend your own spin?
It’s a personal favourite. Our version combines the two worlds of sports and couture. There are hand-embroidered dresses, football jerseys, and rugby-like wide-shoulder silhouettes that take a spin on ‘Blokecore,’ but through the Kapoor lens. My personal favourite is the hand-embroidered cropped blazer and split shorts, washed leather bikers and the hand-embroidered team jerseys.
