Amit Aggarwal’s ideas about form and structure took shape growing up in a family of engineers and scientists. His childhood days were spent observing his father work on engineering projects. He has always been greatly inspired by science, which is evident in his design ideology today. He graduated from the National Institute of Fashion Technology in the year 1999. His graduation collection was showcased at fashion weeks internationally. In his early career, he worked with the leading design houses of the country.
INCEPTION
Birth to me is the highest epitome of creation. It is the moment when the
combined DNAs of our lineage come together to create something unique that
impacts the future. I grew up in the city of paradoxes, Mumbai, and my first
understanding of how creation can move us was at age five before I started
studying design in 1999. My mother opened the Godrej cupboard and I
accidentally saw a beautiful piece of golden textile peeking out. It was her
wedding sari and she had never worn it since. To my surprise, she had
embroidered a glowing mustard yellow mushroom pattern with a sequin of gota
in a sunburst motif. Bright, colourful, metallic: the iconography of my mother’s
wedding sari and growing up around my father’s mathematical blueprints from
his engineering workshop seared themselves into my consciousness. This left a
deep impression on how I would perceive the irreversible power of design to
move us between the stitches of time.
INSPIRATION
We form endless connections between the past and the future by creating in
the present. With birth comes our given nature that symbolises everything we
are born into and personifies our roots. It is also our experiences that nurture
us into the people we become and the legacy we wish to leave behind. My
inspiration to create has always been in worlds other than fashion. The
parametric architectural forms that defy easy definitions, the layered form of
skeletons found deep in the oceans, the intricacies of basketry—all of them
come together to form the warp and weft of life at the brand.
INNOVATION
Over some time the larger objective of what we do as a fashion brand is to be
sensitive to one’s mind as much as we are to the body. In the balance of
innovation and tradition lies the marriage of fashion and art and the universe
of our clothes. Much like human birth, the brand’s DNA cannot be about one
thing or the other. With this thought, we evolve a larger brand language that
can encompass all aspects of design beyond the human form. After all, art
creates a stimulus for the mind and the heart. Fashion needs to evoke the
mind, heart and the human body, too. To us, it is a multi-sensorial experience
in the truest sense of the word