Backstage before his much-delayed spring couture outing, Gaurav Gupta offered a meditation on its spiritual inspirations, such as the Sanskrit word Aarohanam, or the mudra, a symbolic gesture that would soon emerge as a brassiere cast in bronze. “Ancient cultures were so much more progressive, they didn’t even have to talk to each other to communicate,” he said. “Everything means something.”
For his third couture outing in Paris, the designer continued to draw on his country’s rich embroidery tradition, working his self-described futuristic-primitive vibe in a way he called “almost meteoric.” This was particularly evident in mirror-and-crystal embroidery he said was inspired by kundalini, the energy of divine love, rendered here to mimic snakeskin on a cropped jacket with a bodhi-inspired skirt, or a hefty gown. (The inbuilt corset, he noted, ensured even weight distribution).
Further along, Gupta expanded on a house signature, using corsetry wires to fashion a giant sky blue wave on a black column dress, or give a flame orange bustier gown a volcanic eruption of a skirt. Those are the kinds of silhouettes that make Gupta a favorite among pop icons including Beyoncé (during her Renaissance tour), Cardi B (at last year’s Grammys), and Megan Thee Stallion (2022 Oscars), but the designer said that working with an increasingly international clientele has prompted him to try to work a little differently.
“The global client travels so much, living multiple lives in Monaco, Paris, and New York, so she’s able to live out multiple different layers of fantasy,” he said, adding that he is learning to lean into restraint (all things being relative). It may well be that those cast bronze bras turn up on a red carpet in the months ahead; ditto the gradient blue waterfall gown. But when it comes to IRL dressing, the simpler looks—a black column gown, a pearl gray trench—looked like the most likely contenders.
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