Supriya Lele’s return to the runway for the first time in two years was well worth the wait. No matter that the runway was a carpark, the wattage her collection generated was quite sensational. “We were looking at Bruce Weber, Indian goddesses, and kind of Indian uncle tanks,” she said as her models were lining up.
The “Indian uncle” turned out to be a white ribbed singlet grown into a bodysuit—a garment that defies categorization, as is typical of Lele’s work. Is it an under-garment, a swimsuit or something just meant to hang out in? The answer’s probably all three, because Lele’s design busts the boundaries between lingerie, swimwear, and ready-to-wear, and her following loves her for it.
With time and experience she’s perfected ways to drape and fit and layer her pieces so that everything stays in place and looks classy. This is the avant garde movement around celebrating the female body she began developing well before the pandemic.
Now she’s added more strings to her bow: lacy knitwear dresses, leather corset-bras “transforming the sari blouse from its colonial origins,” as her notes put it, and beautiful slim shoulder-bags amongst them. Close up, they have the kind of delicate placement of detail that’s typically a Lele touch—a line of “little Indian brass charms we 3-d printed—the shapes are basically from statues of classical Indian sculpture.”
Halfway through the lineup was a look Lele pointed to, laughingly, as a kind of self-portrait. “These trousers are kind of like Indian shalwar kameez pants, but also a bit of old ’80s-style at the same time. And she’s got a black leather jacket. That’s how I see myself.”
Walking the talk and wearing the looks is a creative power that women designers have. As daring as Lele’s brand seems, it’s working because it’s a functioning proposition that has all the angles meticulously test-driven by the designer herself.
