Nazranaa, a leading brand for Indian fashion and bridalwear, unveiled their SS26 collection “Samskriti” on September 11th at The Glasshouse in New York City.
Nazranaa, founded in 2012, is the brainchild of sister and brother designer duo Shivangi Gupta Singh and Shashank Gupta. This latest collection, Samskriti, draws inspiration from their spiritual journey and the rediscovery of Indian culture, extending beyond what is typically taught in families or history books, a press release from the company said.
Their designs draw from works like the Shri Ramakrishna Vilomakavyam, a 15th-century, 36-verse bidirectional poem in Sanskrit written by Surya Pandita.
“As a child, I remember being mesmerized by ambigrams in Angels & Demons. Years later, I stumbled upon the 15th-century Sanskrit palindromic poem, which tells the story of the Rāmāyaṇa when read from left to right and Kṛṣṇa’s life when read from right to left,” recalls Nazranaa co-founder Shashank Gupta. “I was baffled by its brilliance, and I knew I wanted to use my love language—fashion—to shine light on such forgotten treasures of our culture.”
Samskriti is an 18-piece collection, where sherwanis and lehengas are used as canvases of storytelling through couture.
The showstopper lehenga, the design house says, is inspired by the genius of Maharishi Valmiki’s weaving of the Gayatri Mantra into the Ramayana. The Gayatri Mantra has 24 syllables, and in the Ramayana, the first syllable begins the epic, and each thousandth verse begins with the following syllable. This concept was translated into a lehenga with 24 panels, each beginning with a syllable of the mantra at the top, followed by the corresponding verse and the chapter or khanda at the base. Each panel is hand-painted with the story from that chapter, while the dupatta depicts the sage himself writing the scripture.
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