Abraham and Thakore’s collection Body Language is a maturity masterclass

David Abraham and Rakesh Thakore

Body Language, Abraham & Thakore's collection showcased at the recent FDCI x Lakmé Fashion Week served as a necessary reminder that very little in fashion is new, nor is it supposed to be. "We are not airy-fairy; we like to have some solidity," creative director at A&T, David Abraham says during a post-show chat with mid-day.

He and Rakesh Thakore, graduates of the National Institute of Design, established the fashion and textiles label in 1992. Contemporary designers give us trends and hanger appeal. A&T have reset the dial in the way their customers dress by consistently offering excitement that needs to be experienced not on the racks but on bodies in motion.

This texture-fest of a show hinged on the visual, with the duo sticking to their favourites, black and white. "There's something beautiful about the black and white pair; there is no ambiguity, no messing around," Abraham says cheerfully.

Abraham & Thakore's dhoti-suit worn with platform footwear is something of "a mood" this season

A&T's take on the body was inclusive, more today, as they played the sophisticated game of androgyny and sexuality - making them something of "a mood" this season. Their play of opaque against sheer and mannish tailoring against womanly flutter was a masterclass in textile fabrics meets forward-looking shapes.
A twisted take on wardrobe classics, like the white shirt and the saree, have earned them legions. A tuxedo shirt and a bowtie, for example, paired with a black saree and refined with a laser cutwork pallu proved more priceless than the best bling in the world.

Designers are often in danger of over-contextualising fashion. A&T seldom has that problem. Their newest design intervention: the pre-draped dhoti-suit was boxier (and came with pockets) than the traditional silhouette. It was less homely, and more architectural with a Thom Browne shorts-suit wiggle. "This was us looking at our colonial past. I have a picture of my grandfather, a Malayali who grew up in Kerala, who wore western jackets with dhotis," explains Abraham. The Common Man, the iconic cartoon character created by the late RK Laxman, was another inspiration.

Acknowledging the reality of chatGPT gaining an audience, and emojis becoming almost as powerful as prose, they used geometric typography repeatedly. While trusting indigenous craft techniques like ikat, ajrakh, brocade and badla, they also used braille, morse code and "conventional" text as an invitation to feel letters, wear binary codes and make a witty, non-verbal statement. "Look closer and you may see the words ‘Abraham & Thakore' appear in what looks like illegible text [on the garments]. In an over-branded world, this sighting is part humour, part hallucination, part social commentary," Abraham explains.

In fashion, six months is a long time. To survive 31 years is an achievement. But the timeline benefits A&T, a brand which relies on courage to be fundamentally inventive as the cornerstone of its assured aesthetic.