At India Couture Week this season, designer Amit Aggarwal built a couture collection not from sketches or storyboards, but from stands of DNA. With ARCANUM, Aggarwal peels back the skin of couture and reaches, almost audaciously, for the code beneath. There was no fantasy of bridal excess or cinematic nostalgia, but a system – one built from structure, movement, and our internal codes that define us.
Aggarwal has always positioned himself slightly outside the usual grammar of Indian couture. Where many lean on craft as ornamentation, he uses it to build form. Where bridalwear often defaults to weight — of embroidery, embellishment, expectation — Aggarwal designs for motion. He has never been nostalgic about tradition. He’s analytical about it. Which is what makes ARCANUM a particularly compelling collection: it draws from something older than textiles or family legacy. It draws from DNA.
In five parts — Origin, Bloom, Pulse, Mutation, and Memory — the collection traces a kind of biological narrative. Early looks are restrained, almost meditative: cocooned silhouettes, woven nylon and cotton, shapes that feel suspended in stillness. From there, the collection opens up — pleats stretch, crystal veins appear, polymers take over. Materials collide. Structures shift. Each garment becomes a kind of equation: coded, deliberate, and alive with movement. For Aggarwal, science isn’t a gimmick. He uses it as architecture. And that’s what gives this collection its clarity.
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Excerpts from a conversation.
What was the inspiration behind ARCANUM?
ARCANUM, for me, isn’t just about garments — it’s a meditation on identity, essence, and transformation. The idea of using DNA as the narrative core came from a very personal place. Couture always talks about legacy, but I started to wonder – what if we traced that heritage deeper, beyond fabric and form to the very code that shapes who we are? DNA is the most intimate archive of existence — it holds biology, memory, maybe even emotion. With this collection, I wanted to make that archive visible. And I wanted to let people wear what they’re made of. Maybe it’s a reminder that even in the hyper-constructed world of fashion, our truest form begins within.
That’s such a powerful concept. But how do you actually turn something as abstract as DNA into couture?
Fashion, for me, is a language — and DNA is our oldest dialect. To translate it, I had to think like a scientist, but also sculpt like a dreamer. Translating DNA into couture means working with structure, repetition, and nuance. The iconic spiral of the double helix influenced the structure — you’ll see it in the way garments twist, wrap, evolve around the body. I wanted it to feel like the garments were almost born from within rather than placed upon.
We used bio-inspired polymers and recycled materials because they behave like living systems. Each silhouette is asymmetrical, intentionally imperfect — like us; they also mimic genetic mutations. It’s a celebration of imperfection, of what makes us singular. And the beauty of that? These garments respond. They’re not static. They shimmer with light, they adapt to motion. They breathe. In that sense, ARCANUM isn’t just wearable art — it’s a second skin that remembers where we come from.
Your technique has always been ahead of its time, but this time, what was the hardest piece to bring to life?
It was the structured tuxe that fused handwoven metallic strips with custom-moulded polymer veins – almost like an exoskeleton evolving from the body. It looked like it was grown, not made. Creating it meant abandoning traditional construction. We carved microscopic channels into the polymer to mimic capillaries, bonding materials instead of sewing. It was brutal — the kind of challenge where you fail 20 times before you get it right. But it was also extremely fulfilling. Pushing technical boundaries always is. It brought the concept of ARCANUM to life in a way that felt both deeply human and almost otherworldly — and that, to me, made every challenge worth it.
The collection is structured like a story — from Origin to Memory. How did that narrative shape the design process?
With ARCANUM, I approached the collection as a living narrative, each chapter tracing a stage of transformation. Origin begins with pure, protective forms; Bloom expands into vibrant, organic silhouettes; Pulse introduces movement and rhythm, mimicking breath and heartbeat. Mutation disrupts with asymmetry and unexpected structures, reflecting evolution and change, while Memory closes the arc with softened silhouettes that carry echoes of all that came before. Each piece was designed as a poetic embodiment of life unfolding.
Let’s talk about fabric. You used everything from ikat to nylon to crystal. What drove the material choices?
Material, for me, is never just surface – it’s a language. In ARCANUM, every fabric and form was chosen to reflect duality: the organic and the engineered, the ancestral and the futuristic. Ikat brought in a sense of heritage and memory, its blurred patterns feel almost like genetic code in motion. Polymers and nylon allowed us to sculpt, to push the form into new, almost bio-engineered territories. The crystal veins acted like lifelines, running through the garments as if carrying energy or information. Each material had to serve both structure and symbolism.
If you had to describe this collection in one word?
Essence. Because DNA is the essence of life. It’s who we are before we are anything else. Before we dress up, before we perform, before we even speak. It’s our silent story.
What does the “ideal” Amit Aggarwal wearer embody?
Transformation. Someone who doesn’t fear structure, but also doesn’t hide in it. Who values both ancestry and futurism. Someone who sees clothing not as disguise or decor, but as expression. They wear their individuality like a second skin.
From sketch to final piece, what was the emotional journey of designing for ARCANUM?
From paper to reality, this piece began as a sketch of movement, an idea rooted in anatomy and energy. Through countless material tests, sculpting sessions, and hand-finishing, it evolved into a form that feels both innovative and deeply human. It was a process of constant refinement, translating emotion into structure.
Do you stick to the original sketch always, or do you often leave room for improvisation?
I see the original sketch as a starting point, a blueprint. But the real magic happens in the making. Materials speak, forms evolve, and often the piece tells you what it needs to become. So yes, I always leave room for improvisation, that’s where discovery lives.
Seeing your sketch finally come down to the runway — what's that moment like?
It’s a moment of quiet awe - watching an idea that lived in your mind take on breath, movement, and emotion. On the runway, it stops being just a garment and becomes a living story.