“India has been reborn... I’m apologising to you, Gen Z, because our generation has allowed this to happen. We never put our foot down... I woke up with a huge sense of renewal and hope,” said Tarun Tahiliani in his address at his off-site couture presentation the day following the resignation of education minister Dharmendra Pradhan. It was the clearest acknowledgement of what’s been impossible to ignore during India Couture Week.
For weeks, youth-led protests over the state of the education system have consumed national conversation. Fashion is often accused of being out of touch or for existing in a bubble, sealed off from the realities beyond the venue, but over the last week, models, members of the press, and volunteers in Delhi have been attending demonstrations during the day and returning to the shows at night. All anyone can talk about—even more than the clothes—is how Gen Z has shown up and forced a response from those in power.
At House of Masaba, the show began with a recording of a speech by Sarojini Naidu. Her collection, titled ‘Chardi Kala’—a Sikh expression describing a sense of enduring optimism and resilience in the face of adversity—was peppered with T-shirts and accessories featuring the map of India. Last night at Rimzim Dadu, the designer walked out at curtain call sporting a Tricolour pin on her left sleeve. These were subtle gestures, open to interpretation rather than overt political declarations, but went to show that nothing exists in a vacuum.
