Backstage before his much-delayed spring couture outing, Gaurav Gupta offered a meditation on its spiritual inspirations, such as the Sanskrit word Aarohanam, or the mudra, a symbolic gesture that would soon appear as a bra cast in bronze. “Ancient cultures were so much more advanced that they didn’t even have to talk to each other to communicate,” he said. “Everything means something.”
For his third couture outing in Paris, the designer continued to draw on his country’s rich embroidery tradition, elaborating on his self-described futuristic-primitive vibe in a way he called “almost meteoric.” This was especially evident in mirror-and-crystal embroidery that he said was inspired by kundalini, the energy of divine love, rendered here to mimic snakeskin on a short jacket with a bodhi-inspired skirt, or a heavy dress. (The built-in corset, he noted, provided even weight distribution).
Further on, Gupta expanded on a house signature, using corsetry threads to create a giant sky-blue wave on a black column dress, or giving a flame-orange bustier dress a volcanic eruption of a skirt. Those are the kind of silhouettes that make Gupta a favorite among pop icons including Beyoncé (on her Renaissance tour), Cardi B (at last year’s Grammys) and Megan Thee Stallion (2022 Oscars), but the designer said they work with an increasingly international clientele has prompted him to work in a different way.
“The global customer travels so much and lives multiple lives in Monaco, Paris and New York, so she can live out multiple different layers of fantasy,” he said, adding that he is learning to hold back (because everything is relative). ). Those cast bronze bras may well appear on the red carpet in the coming months; ditto the gradient blue waterfall dress. But when it comes to IRL dressing, the simpler looks — a black column dress, a pearl gray trench coat — seemed the most likely contenders.
