Why has Gaurav Gupta launched GG Bride in an already saturated wedding market? His quick response: “I don’t care if it’s crowded, I want to show brides you don’t need to look like each other,” he quips.
He has attitude, admits he doesn’t like to be slotted. He did wedding wear to understand what he, a Western wear designer, would do and show them how it’s done!
Why not do bridals emblazoned with peacocks that look like they are flying, art nouveau, Lalique kind of embroidery? “I look for newness in things, whether it is menswear with shapes or embroidered lehengas. There is an interesting line between beauty and innovation: I attempt to straddle both,” he says.
From zardosi, pearls to silk and glass beads, his choice for ornamentation is interesting in the GG Bride category.
Deconstructions
On another note, his deconstructed trousers show up with a bomber. Then there is the upcycled piece where he collected scrap, rejects and discarded surplus to create white trousers with flying flaps in the form of fabric manipulations in his latest FDCIXLFW line.
“Sustainability matters to me the most, everyone everywhere is reconstructing and de-constructing, it is going to be the way of the world,” he confesses.
Also read: From scrap to couture, a sustainable journey
Remember, he likes pure white and not shades of ivory – the latter just don’t interest him. Just like his admiration for white, his vision is crystal clear. Maybe that’s the reason for his meteoric rise in a country that never would dream of wearing a body-hugging silhouette. You would call GG anarchist, maybe, experimental, most definitely, and somewhere also exhibitionist.
Not one to rest on domestic laurels, he aimed for global applause — and got it, both organically and via persuasion.
The year 2022 brought luck, as a bevy of Hollywood beauties chose to wear his sculpted gowns, from the Oscars to the Emmys. So Mary J Blige wore his artistic piece to the Time 100 gala, Cardi B for her music video “No love” and Sarah Niles wore his gown for the 74th Emmy Awards.
Megan Thee Stallion, the American rapper, made her Oscars debut at the 94th Academy Awards, wearing his ‘Fantasy Biomorphic Gown’ that is inspired by a mystical sea creature.
“GG is culture-less as a brand and challenge the set norms, t0hat’s why we have inclusive stars from Ashanti to Cardi B preferring to wear us,” he adds.
Cannes 2022 was another big event as Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and American actor Liza Koshy sizzled on the red carpet in GG. The actor wore a sculptured mini dress to the premiere of Armageddon Time, with a three-dimensional art piece in the front of the dress, while Italian actor Catrinel
Marlon chose an emerald shell sculpture gown.
East meets West
In India, when he started 17 years ago, only lehengas and saris were worn at weddings, but now you have women opting for a gown at least for the Sangeet or reception.
This has given a new spin to traditional dressing. “I grew up seeing Beth Ditto wearing McQueen. Sometimes I feel we are overdoing it in India, but it should be overdone, so that it becomes normal,” he explains.
The brand celebrates all sizes from a small to an XXXL, celebrates queer community, talks about ‘universal love’. His admiration for black and white is limitless as he likes the absolutes they offer. “They are a bit like yin and yang. Though this year for the FDCIXLFW we missed reds, but offered lava grey and night teals as well as sage golds,” he says.
This line, in his words, is “a celebration of cosmic energy”, thus the crystal burst embroideries. Each piece has an avalanche of crystals which resemble shooting stars.
Clothes, he believes, must have a purpose, and his is clear — they are cultural entities. GG hopes to change the preconceived notions of form, pattern cutting and shape and what one can and should wear. “I always like to see a parallel universe, I have adhered to Surrealism and it inspires me the most,” he says.
It was this fantasy where fashion crossed over and became art, as each piece is painstakingly made. All the packaging for the GG Studio is crafted from recycled ocean waste, his studio is zero waste and for him fashion does more than what meets the eye. “It drives up your confidence, it’s a mood uplifter and above all it has a lot to do with your ego and identity,” he concludes.
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