Amit Aggarwal's The Body, In Form Campaign Asks What A Man Can Contain

Amit Aggarwal is no stranger to menswear; the designer presented his first menswear collection at Lakme Fashion Week in August 2018. By now, you could see his scuplted jackets and embroidered bandhgalas from across the room and instantly recognise them as his creayions.

Yet the campaign images in front of us feel very refreshing. It’s a study of masculinity in all its shapes and forms, and a rather visceral one at that. It has none of the formality and boyish charm you would generally associate with a menswear shoot. Shot against a bleak, grey backdrop, Amit Aggarwal’s menswear campaign, The Body, In Form, is a study of man, sans the societal ideals that have for centuries been the epitome of male beauty. 

Not that this ideal is absent from the conversation— the models are as brawny as they come. What makes it refreshing is how they cling to their outfits, and what the outfits in turn do for them.

As I said before, this whole campaign is shot in front of a grey background, almost like walls of cement separating them from the outside world. In this sanctuary, the man can be anything: he can be sensual, he can be commanding, he can explore what it is to live beyond the prescribed norms of masculinity, he can find his way back to the norms on his own terms. Intentional or not, he often comes across as brooding. 

Which is where the outfits come in. Even in their inanimacy, they caress him. The sherwani and the blazer become a support he can embrace when he explores this new world. The skirt helps him navigate the unknown recesses of his sensuality. A hermaphroditic breastplate helps his sculpted body experience a form outside the parameters of the masculine ideal. When he sulks, his garment engulfs him, almost like a pod safeguarding the seeds till it’s time for life to begin anew. 

Below, the couturier talks about his vision for the new menswear campaign, the techniques he embraced, and where it stands in the larger universe of Amit Aggarwal collections. 

Tell us about the ideas that inspired this collection and the campaign. What was going through your mind while ideating The Body, In Form?

The Body In Form began with thinking about the male body not simply as something that clothes sit on, but as something that carries ideas of strength, vulnerability, instinct, protection, power and sensuality.

I wanted to look at the structures that we traditionally associate with menswear and masculinity and question how fixed they really need to be. The collection therefore moves between rigidity and softness, structure and fluidity, exposure and protection.

Visually, I was interested in the idea of darkness being interrupted by light. That became the foundation for the palette of black, ink blue and deep plum, and eventually extended into the embroidery, where light appears almost as particles, rays or energy emerging from the surface.

The campaign was conceived as an extension of that thought. We stripped away context and allowed the body, the garment and these sculptural forms to become the protagonists. I wanted the images to feel instinctive and slightly unfamiliar, rather than presenting a conventional idea of what menswear or a menswear campaign should look like.

It’s rare to see men presented in such a raw and vulnerable way in Indian fashion campaigns. Some models are brooding; some are clinging to their clothes instead of wearing them. What did you want to convey about men through this shoot?

I wasn’t consciously trying to make the men look vulnerable. I was more interested in allowing vulnerability to exist alongside strength.

We often have a very specific visual vocabulary for masculinity: strong, controlled, powerful, contained. I wanted to create space for something more nuanced. A man can be sensual without performing sensuality. He can be vulnerable without appearing fragile. He can be powerful without needing to dominate the frame.

The gestures in the campaign came from that idea. Sometimes the garment is being worn, sometimes it is being held onto, sometimes it almost becomes a protective layer around the body. I wanted the clothes to feel like an extension of the emotional and physical state of the person wearing them.

For me, that is also what makes the imagery feel more human.

We also see the seed motif from your previous works - and your recent flagship - appear in this campaign. How do you connect it to menswear?

The seed, or what we refer to as the “Pod”, has become an important form within the Amit Aggarwal universe because it represents potential, transformation and the beginning of something.

I don’t see it as a motif that belongs specifically to womenswear or menswear. It is more fundamental than that. A Pod contains the possibility of an entire form within it, and that idea of something evolving and transforming felt very relevant to this collection.

In the campaign, the Pods are not literal representations. They become more sculptural and almost anatomical—sometimes resembling shells, organisms or fragments of something yet to emerge.

That ambiguity is important to me. I like recurring elements to evolve rather than simply repeat themselves. The same language can take on a completely different character when it encounters the male body.

Are there techniques and house codes that you reimagined for this collection? 

The collection draws on many of the codes intrinsic to Amit Aggarwal’s design language, reinterpreted through a more restrained, austere lens.

Embroidery takes on a structural quality through hand-beaded surfaces, metallic leather cords, metallic polymer and high-shine embellishments. Rather than distributing shine uniformly, these elements are concentrated in specific areas, allowing light to gather and recede across the garment.

Drawing from sunray formations, geometric lines and human anatomy, the embroideries radiate, intersect, taper and dissolve. The result is a surface that behaves almost like light, creating movement beyond conventional decoration.

Surface plays an equally important role. Velvet, satin, satin crepe and other lustrous fabrics allow the dark palette to shift between matte, soft, reflective and luminous, creating depth through the interplay of texture and light.

In the silhouettes, our language of structure is softened through oversized bombers, sculpted tuxedos, draped forms and relaxed trousers. The architecture remains intact, while the body is given greater freedom to move within it.

What are some of the main hurdles you face while designing menswear, and what is easier when designing for men?

One of the biggest challenges is also what makes menswear interesting: the vocabulary is historically more restricted.

There are certain expectations around what a man’s jacket, trouser or formal garment should look like. So the challenge is to push those boundaries without making the clothes feel like an experiment for the sake of experimentation.

For me, the answer is in proportion, surface and detail. You can make a very familiar garment feel completely different simply by changing its shoulder, volume, fall, texture or the way light interacts with it.

What is perhaps easier is that men are becoming increasingly open to those changes. There is a growing curiosity around fit, fabric, craftsmanship and styling. That gives us much more room to experiment.

Today, more men are open to exploring fashion, beauty and style. But increasingly, there are also men who go above and beyond for a certain kind of body or beauty standard. What do you think about this newfound consciousness that men have gained about their bodies? 

I think it is an important shift because men are beginning to look at their bodies beyond just strength or physicality. There is a greater awareness of how they present themselves, how they feel in their bodies and how clothing can become an extension of that relationship. At the same time, I think we need to be mindful of the new pressures that come with this consciousness. The pursuit of a particular body or beauty ideal can become just as restrictive for men as it has been for women.

For me, the body is not something that needs to be corrected or conformed to a particular standard. It is something to be understood, expressed and celebrated in all its complexity. With The Body, In Form, I wanted to explore the relationship between the body and clothing not as a means of achieving an ideal, but as a way of expressing individuality. There is an interesting interplay between vulnerability and strength, protection and exposure, and I think fashion gives men the freedom to explore these dualities without feeling the need to define themselves within conventional ideas of masculinity.

Finally, where do you want this campaign to stand in the larger body of your work?

For me it's an important extension of the design philosophy I have been developing over the years. My work has always explored the relationship between the body, structure and material, and how these elements can come together to create something that feels almost architectural. With menswear, I wanted to approach this relationship through a different lens, exploring how structure can coexist with fluidity, and how strength can have a more vulnerable, expressive side.

I see this campaign as a continuation of the Amit Aggarwal universe, but also as an opportunity to challenge some of the conventions associated with menswear. Through sculptural silhouettes, tactile surfaces, tonal metallics and the interplay of protection and exposure, we are exploring a more expansive idea of how a man can dress and express himself.