Payal Pratap Brings Memories Pressed in Time to Lakmé Fashion Week 2026

As I was seated in my chair in preparation for for Payal Pratap’s LFW x FDCI showcase, I noticed a tree standing at the centre of the runway in the Atelier. It was built entirely from repurposed denim – patches of indigo in every weight and shade, branches dripping to the floor. It was the show before the show, connecting Pratap’s material with her enduring love for nature.

Pratap launched her eponymous label roughly fifteen years ago. A NIFT graduate who spent her early career working with Rajesh Pratap Singh, one of India's most technically demanding designers and her husband, she launched her eponymous label with a design vocabulary that has remained consistent ever since: natural fabrics, wearable silhouettes, and botanicals — gardens, leaves, floras.

Memories Pressed in Time is her first all-denim collection, her first menswear offering, and her first Mumbai showcase. Three firsts, all in one show. The collaboration came through R|Elan, whose denim is developed from recycled PET bottles using patented sustainable fibre technology. The material aligned with her existing approach. But what made her stay was the fabric's nature. "It softens, fades and reshapes with the wearer," she said, backstage before the show. "It doesn't just age, it remembers."

As the show started, models moving through it dressed in indigo jackets with silver palm leaf appliqué, cutwork foliage capes, overshirts layered over deep purple trousers, pantsuits over checked separates. The prints came directly from her own garden — ferns and palms translated through cyanotype-inspired laser printing, then layered with tonal embroidery, block printing, patchwork, crochet, cutwork and her signature cross-stitch, washed and distressed until the garments looked like they'd been worn for years.

Excerpts from a conversation.

This is your first showcase in Mumbai, and you’ve chosen to do it with a very specific fabric — denim. Why denim?

This collection actually began with the collaboration. R|Elan approached us to work with their denim, made from recycled PET bottles, which aligned closely with our approach to creating something considered and long-lasting.

What stayed with me was the nature of denim itself,  it softens, fades and reshapes with the wearer. It doesn’t just age, it remembers. That made it a compelling surface to explore craft, texture and time.

What was the inspiration behind your collection?

The starting point was memory, specifically, fragments of time spent around gardens and the quiet rhythm of nature.

I was drawn to the idea of preserving something fleeting, like pressing leaves into paper. That translated into garments where botanicals appear as soft impressions rather than defined prints. I wanted them to feel remembered, not constructed.

Your collection is “Pressed in Time”. What does time mean to you?

I don’t see time as linear. It’s layered, almost absorbed into things. What interests me is how objects change slowly, how fabric softens, how something becomes more personal with use. Time doesn’t pass, it settles.

Is this your first foray into menswear? How was it designing for men?

Yes, this is the first time we’re introducing menswear, and it felt like a natural extension of the silhouettes we were already exploring. Designing for men brought a certain clarity, everything had to be more intentional. It becomes about knowing what to leave out.

Cyanotype printing has this inherently nostalgic, almost archival quality. What drew you to that technique specifically?

Cyanotype felt very instinctive to the idea of imprint. It captures form through absence,  what remains is just the trace. That felt very close to how memory works. It holds onto what’s no longer there.

There’s a growing conversation around what modern masculinity looks like. If you had to describe an ideal Payal Pratap man, what would he embody?

For me, it’s about ease and quiet confidence. He’s not trying to assert anything, there’s a naturalness in how he dresses and carries himself. Strength, today, feels quieter.

Lastly, how would you want someone to remember your collection?

In a way that lingers. Not immediate, not loud, but something that stays. If it becomes part of someone’s life over time, that feels meaningful. Like a memory, slow, and slightly unresolved.