The last week of January and the firsts of February everyone in the world of fashion on social media was talking about one event: the Gaurav Gupta fashion runaway in Paris Haute Couture Week. Days have gone by and the news keeps expanding to the littlest corners of the internet of what it was a masterful craftsmanship and designs to remember. So let’s talk about him.
Gaurav Gupta is an Indian designer from New Delhi, he studied in the National Institute of Fashion Technology before perfecting his knowledge in the Central Saint Martins in London. The couturier is qualified by many with the title of “Avant-garde”. Famous for his voluminous sculptural and architectural pieces he featured his work in Paris Haute Couture Week being the third designer from his country to do so, following the legend Rahul Mishra, who has attended the event every year since 2020.
Paris this year was lightened by Gupta’s work with his Spring/Summer 2026 collection “The Divine Androgyne” a delicate work that was rooted in the belief system of the “Advait” a concept from the Indian spiritual philosphy that refers to a non binary and indivisible reality. On an instagram caption Gupta summs up this collection in one line: “When you and I are one”.
Designs and art portray an even greater elevated meaning when they are backed by multilayered concepts, such as the ones that Gupta likes to use. The Advait states that the masculine and feminine versions coexist within every being, the human, the divine, the individual soul and the absolut reality, bloom and decay. Connection between two points where categories dissolve. We are an everything even when there are divisions.
The Advait was projected onto his designs with delicat threads that resembled webs or roots, galaxies forming part of the show. Other designs of the collection followed the more known classical vision of the designer with structured orquestal folds and organic figures. Nonetheless the most talked design of the show was a two-dress one red, one beige, with fabrics resembling a venous system, intertwined with threads, a two piece design featuring one, the perfect summit of the philosophical concept Gupta was trying to tell us about.
This past decade has shown that Indian fashion designers are on the rise, many fought to have a sit on the table and they obtained it, but there is still a long way to go. Some trends of the fashion industry and Maisons have been known for “taking” or appropiating certain concepts, designs and ideas of other countries, especially in Asia, passing it off as mere “inspitation” when in reality it falls more into the box of cultural appopriation and explotation.
That is why the leap to stardom of different asian designers is important, for them to represent and honour their roots and cultural background the right way and create new voices that need to be heard. Maybe they were known at home but their step into renowned places in the fashion industry gives the visibility that some young designers need to feel represented in the big leagues. And dream on day to be there, because now more than ever, it is a possibility.
We have seen Gurrav Gupta dressing Cardi B, Megan thee stallion, Jennifer Hudson, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan with his magnificent works of art. We have seen him in Paris Fashion Week, in his Atelier and in the most prestigious fashion magazines around the globe. He declared that he started in this industry with two tailors and a master and now his team has grown around 400 people. The perseverance and resilience of fighting to get someone to hear what you have to say is what Gurav Gupta inspires, we look forward to see more of his legacy soon.
