At London Fashion Week, the most buzzed-about autumn/winter 2026 show was Sanjay Garg’s Raw Mango, which began in 2008 with four handloom weavers and a line of six saris. “I grew up in a Marwari family [from western Rajasthan] and so I’ve always been drawn to this question of what Indian minimalism is,” he reflects. “No country owns minimalism. I want to show the world what my idea of Indian aesthetics is and how refined it can be.” His collection riffed on the idea of flowers in India. Florals for spring? Not quite. Referencing the way that garlands are seen everywhere from cars to shop fronts, to torans (decorative door hangings) to petals arranged into rangoli designs on the floor, here were swaying fringes of silk jasmine, miniature horticultural brocades and quintessentially Indian colours – gold, pink, green, yellow, silver – reimagined in sharp, bold silhouettes crafted by artisans across Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.
Contemporary Delhi label Lovebirds staged a cruise 2026 show at Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa’s Lunuganga Estate, borrowing the tropical modernist’s oft-cited “outward-looking yet inwardly meditative” philosophy to put a fresh spin on its signature cotton dresses. “There was so much extra-ness at the time that we started,” says Gursi Singh, one half of the husband-and-wife duo behind the 2014-founded brand. “We wanted to do something that places importance on restraint – which, for us, is the new India.” Much of Lovebirds’ graphic, sculptural daywear, which feels both rigorous and quietly radical, is rooted in practicality. “If I don’t see myself in it, and if there’s not some kind of comfort to it, we don’t do it,” says Singh’s partner, Amrita Khanna, who oversees design. “For our customers, it’s easy for them to roll it up and put it in their bags when they’re travelling, as so many Indian women are now.”
“East meets West” is a hackneyed cliché, but it alludes to a dialogue about identity, globalisation and immigration that’s relevant to many of these designers. In tune with how the roles of women are shifting, two young Indian designers in Paris are making clothes that draw more from personal experience than tradition. Their collections couldn’t be further from South Asia’s billion-dollar bridalwear business.
