New Delhi, Apr 3: People will always come back to designers who have a true voice despite the rise of Artificial Intelligence in the field of fashion, says renowned designer Tarun Tahiliani, who believes there is too much dependence on technology now.
Tahiliani presented his latest collection from his luxury pret label OTT by Tarun Tahiliani at the recently concluded Lakme Fashion Week X FDCI.
Will fashion, like other industries, will also be impacted by the advancements in AI technology?
Tahiliani believes it will make things more easy and that’s both good and bad.
“It will make people a lot more efficient, it’ll make copying much more efficient and it’ll give people a lot of designs that perhaps their mind was not capable of thinking about and only create visually more chaos than there already is,” the designer told PTI in an interview.
Tahiliani, however, believes people eventually come back to things that carry a “true voice”.
“I don’t think that will go anywhere and a real story is always something that people are responding to more and more because we’ve gone too far with technology and overconsumption. So everyone wants to feel that in some way they can contribute to something that’s real.”
At the fashion extravaganza, the veteran designer presented women’s wear laced with hand-embroidered Chikankari, reinterpreted Rabari craft to British artists The Singh Twins’ signature geometric prints, which first made an appearance in the designer’s 2015 collection.
The clothing that was on display included boho chic scarves, jumpsuits, fluid dresses, structured jackets, kaftans, flared pants, knee-length printed shorts, and dhoti trousers.
The models glided on the runway in Tahiliani’s clothes to the tunes of Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good”, “Respect” and “Think” by Aretha Franklin.
While OTT by Tarun Tahiliani is anything but over-the-top, the designer said even in his luxury pret label stands by the “pillars” of his studio which was launched in 1990.
“So draping is one, Rabari embroidery is always one. I’ve always loved Kutch, maybe I’m Sindhi so a lot of it comes from there, and I love Chikankari. So that was duplicating something that’s so versatile you can wear it over anything,” he added.
What is that one OTT element from Indian fashion that needs to each stay and go?
“The draping can be quite OTT which needs to stay because it’s our identity. What needs to go is the pressure to make things heavy. I’ve met too many women who have 100 lehengas and they don’t want to wear them again…
“You just can’t have fun. Clothes are not meant to be torture, clothes and luxury are meant to be things that you live your life in. If you want to be sustainable you must wear it again and again. You can’t make clothes that are not comfortable,” said Tahiliani.
The designer also made a splash last year when he dressed American social media personality Kim Kardashian for the Anant Ambani-Radhika Merchant wedding last year.
Asked what the experience was like, Tahiliani said: “I wasn’t there so I was sitting and working in Delhi, somebody came down… She styled herself beautifully. Everywhere I speak, I say, Indian women, you’re free to have big hips and own them now. She did that for you.” (PTI)
