It takes a second for my eyes to adjust to the pictures I’m looking at. In front of me is the moodboard for the Lakme Fashion Week Showcase for Pranav Kirti Misra and Shyma Shetty’s HUEMN. Right off the bat, your eyes are drawn to what looks like an Egyptian mummy. Except that the body does not lie on its back with the airs you’d expect of a pharaoh. Is that a bullet wound on a chest in one corner? On the exact opposite corner is a model wearing a dress with the Mona Lisa printed on it. In her hand is a bunch of grapes. It’s like a crude joke; not necessarily dark, but the kind of nihilistic, ironic humour that has found itself in the mainstream of contemporary internet culture.
HUEMN is cool like that. It’s not necessarily shock as much as it is the absurd that pops its head up in every other design. Pranav Kirti Misra could make a collection with Pepsi bottles printed on jackets (to be fair, it was a collab, and a smart one at that), and still make you talk about the deeply unsettling experience that is life in the 21st century. He dresses men living in a bleak world in the aftermath of a cataclysm, but with the memory of colour and a superslim in hand. Knowing HUEMN, the colour in the outfit itself will be a rebellion, a niche reference to said cataclysm, and a hope for a better world.
His designs reflect this ethos- edgy as they are, many of his collections, like the upcoming one, have been collaborations with R|Elan. They push the boundaries of sustainability and utility in fashion and still find a way to send across a message to their audience, edginess and all intact.
HUEMN’s upcoming show is on October 16, the third day of Lakme Fashion Week. In an exclusive below, we sat down with the creative director and co-founder about his collection.
Edited excerpts:
Many of HUEMN’s collections run on the idea of dystopia, death, and destruction. What is it about these themes that draws you to them?
For me, these themes are simply a reflection of reality. Tragedy isn’t superficial, and I think there is something deeply honest about confronting it rather than looking away.
On that note, tell us about the story behind this collection.
When I start to see the chaos in my head translate seamlessly into my work, I feel alive. I don’t sit down with moodboards or pen and paper and plan. Quite honestly, when the media asks for moodboards and sketches for their stories, we have to create one referencing our own actual collection.
Similarly the story, however real it is to me, and however much I feel it, doesn’t always completely translate into words. Often it feels like I am misrepresenting my own work, conforming it to language. There is so much that’s gone into it. The extent of my life so far, my late father, my ex-partner who chose a different path midway. My ego, my guilt, my understanding of love and pain. My mother has started to appear in my work too.
I also see so much of the current socio-political time we are living in, represented in the work. Like a mirror, the more I keep looking, the more I discover. And you might not see any of it or maybe all of it, but that’s your side of the participation into my work. The more I translate my work into words, I feel I am paralysing my own audience.
There’s a new silhouette inspired by Egyptian mummies this season. Without spoiling too much, tell us more about it.
We first designed this silhouette around 13 years ago, but never took it to the market. Each piece is uniquely draped, making every garment different from the next. The individuality of the draping is what makes the silhouette particularly interesting to us.
Continuing on this, what are the new techniques that we can look forward to in your collaboration with R|Elan?
What made this collaboration with R|Elan particularly exciting was the blend of fabrics and textiles we were able to explore. That combination brought a refreshing dimension to the way we approach the category.
One of the techniques to look out for is the use of hair in our embroideries. We have also explored snakeskin through print, a motif that has been extensively used in fashion, but approached it through our own interpretation.
How did you come up with an original print for this collection?
We created our version of snakeskin using sequin sheeting. It was about taking a familiar motif and exploring a different way of translating its texture and visual character into the collection.
Is there a piece that you are particularly excited to present in the upcoming show?
I am more excited about the orchestra of the entire collection than about any one piece in isolation. For me, that is what makes watching a HUEMN show a different experience. You get to see more than just clothes; you experience how the individual pieces come together to create something larger.
You once spoke about how what people represent through their outfit is more important than the clothes themselves. What would a man wearing this collection stand for?
A man wearing this collection would stand for women, their rights and their freedom to be who they are. For me, what a person chooses to stand for matters far more than what they choose to wear.