 "EXCLUSIVE! Lakme Fashion Week x FDCI 2024: Designer Urvashi Kaur & Tillotama Shome on inclusivity of fashion")
At the recently held Lakme Fashion Week x FDCI 2024, designer Urvashi Kaur and actor Tillotama Shome spoke exclusively to Firstpost’s Lachmi Deb Roy about inclusivity of fashion, the relationship Urvashi has built with the people that have been walking the ramp for her in the last 15 years, and much more.
Urvashi Kaur, the visionary force behind a decade and a half of groundbreaking fashion, commemorated her 15-year journey with a spectacular showcase at Lakmē Fashion Week in partnership with FDCI. The showcase, titled “Voices of Urvashi Kaur,” was a testament to the brand’s effortless subversion of societal-constructs and unwavering commitment to inclusivity, and creative disruption.
While talking about the connection she builds with people that walk the ramp for her at the Lakme Fashion Week x FDCI 2024, Urvashi Kaur said, “Just love to me, them accepting me and trusting my vision when I was a nobody. Truly, truly just saying yes and being my first. Tillotama has been that for me.” Those who walk the ramp for her are not models or stars, but people from different walks of life.
Tillotama adds, “And Urvashi has been that for me. I’m an actor, not a fashionista. I don’t identify with any particular trend or I don’t really bother about how many Instagram followers or the whole pressure to be visible. And it didn’t matter to her either. It mattered to her who I was, It mattered to me who she was. She comes from an army background, my father comes from an air force background. We work hard to be here, And it’s a friendship really, based on that kind of care.”
Talking about the inclusivity of fashion and managing to bring people from different walks of life together for the last 15 years, Urvashi reveals, “You happen to make beautiful friendships and new friendships. Shantanu, I only met him once for maybe half an hour, and Faraaz and I have never, other than that, half an hour, 1 hour at an evening, and he just, reached out and he knew I’m gracing this wonderful event. He asked if he could wear me. This is the magic that people, just Just by how our energies are. I think everything is energy, vibration. That’s what the music was also meant to do, it was meant to get you to a place of just losing yourself. Even the artist lost himself. He was like, ‘I didn’t even know that the time went by and we didn’t want it to be like.’ We wanted people to just notice because usually everything is so hyped. Right? So when a musical, theatrical performance, and it was performative, but it was real, it was real. We didn’t want them to do anything that was fake or just to create drama.”
She adds, “No, it was, you want to walk, you walk, you want to sit, you sit, you want to do whatever. We wanted to engage with the audience because the idea is usually a seating is further away. We want people not to come close to the performance so you can’t really be a part of it. We wanted you to be a part of it. So that was.”
The show celebrated the collective impact of its multitude of visionaries and changemakers who have shaped not just the brand’s narrative but pioneered large scale impact across industries. Through this experiential performance, Urvashi Kaur’s muses took center stage, clad in timeless silhouettes that embodied the label’s ethos of authenticity and individuality. Transcending conventional norms, the show embraced and celebrated the mastery of Kaur’s eco-design.
Amongst its distinguished muses were veteran actor Ratna Pathak Shah , renowned artist Santanu Hazarika, talented actors Tillotama Shome, Rasika Duggal, Shweta Tripathi, Mallika Dua, Kaustav, and creative-extraordinaries like Vibha Galhotra, Gurjeet Singh, Faraz Ansari and Suvir Saran to name a few. Stalwarts in their own right, they symbolized the power of the collective and the might of personal expression. Each muse’s ensemble was meticulously curated and styled to serve as a tactile extension of their own personal identity.
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