On the evening of 18 September, Ace Couturier Gaurav Gupta presented a film titled ‘Name is Love’, to open the first-ever digital India Couture Week.
Gaurav Gupta opened India Couture Week’s digital edition. His showing—a film titled Name is Love, is an ode to the most primal and beautiful human emotion.
His team states, “The pandemic and the lockdown that followed shortly after, gave us a moment to hit pause on our lives. It was a moment to reflect on our actions, relationships, beliefs, the power of art, fashion and creativity. We discovered a narrative that stirs the existing dialogue, with love where boundaries are patched, where narrow corridors of division, cults and definitions are pushed far and wide to make space for love—the only name that matters. The story is not shy, it’s not angry. It aims to rise above the storm and focus all its light on love.”
His couture collection highlights a prime emotion ‘love’ – love for self, for all genders, for all body shapes, for all ethnicities, for all sexualities. The team adds, “There is a new wave of social change in India which has been exposed only in pockets but hasn’t received a mainstream platform—the campaign is meticulously curated in order to uphold authenticity and capture a true sense of rawness which is vulnerable yet utterly endearing at the same time.”
From Anjali Lama: a trans-female supermodel, Tarun: a non-binary model taking the forefront in International campaigns and owning his feminine and masculine side gracefully in front of the camera, Nitya: a body-positive woman, Vee: a trans-male model effortlessly showcasing his true self, two boys in love with each other-Rudra and Anurag to two girls in love with each other-Manauti and Anjali, happily living-in with their parents. In this process, the GG team also discovered models from Jharkhand, Haryana and Assam who are oozing the potential and confidence to take over the International runway very soon.
The remarkable GG team enlightens, “While we were casting, we discovered beautiful stories where differences and sexualities were not just accepted but celebrated. We were enamoured by these individuals’ sheer optimism; their experiences felt familiar yet bold and their stories needed to be heard.” There is a new wave of social change in India which has been
exposed only in pockets but hasn’t received a mainstream platform—the campaign is meticulously curated in order to uphold authenticity and capture a true sense of rawness which is vulnerable yet utterly endearing at the same time.
Navkirat Sodhi, the magical poetess has written and recited ‘Name Is Love’, our original soundtrack for the show with an original music composition by Sahil Vasudeva—the track is available across platforms like Soundcloud and Spotify.
For a designer who is known for his sculptural, sometimes subversive take on fashion, the collection has notes of classicism and well-crafted messages of love.
The team concludes, “In India today, we are witnessing a cultural shift and are proud to have partnered with these fierce individuals and to have represented varied forms of love. We wish that this message resonates and connects with millions of people who are facing prejudice or feel inhibited to express themselves due to the pre-conceived societal norms; we hope that their voice can create a ripple of change.”
