AIFW PREVIEW | ARCHNA RAO

Archna Rao is known for her minimalist and understated design aesthetics. She believes in designing wearable fashion and this season too, the designer’s collection promises to do just that. Talking to IFM about the inspiration, she says, “The collection is inspired by quaint little towns all over the world. I have been travelling a lot and feel the lifestyle of people living in towns is very peculiar. They are content in what they have. They all have these cute homes that are built in a certain way with little detailing here and there. That is where the inspiration comes from.”

But how do different towns come together to form a cohesive design inspiration? She explains, “Towns have a common thread and, be it Sidhpur in Gujarat or Seville in Spain, they connect in some way. I was inspired by the homes of people living there.”

How does the town inspire her silhouettes for the season? “It’s my colonial version of the lifestyle in towns. The shapes are all very basic and easy silhouettes with one standout detail in each piece. The color story starts off in white and goes forward in light pastel shades, with very few elements of contrast.”

Going through her look book journal, we could see she has played with mixing prints, and bead embroideries as well. It was her travels, where she connected with people and visited their homes, which motivated her during the whole design process.

A perfectionist to the core, she had a fool-proof plan to avoid any mistakes during the design process. “I am a huge control freak,” she confesses. “I try to avoid mistakes before they happen. Whenever I feel like things will go wrong, I take 10 different steps to fix it.”

The designer would be showcasing her collection under her eponymous label Archana Rao. We couldn’t help but ask about her other label ‘FrouFrou’—why that peculiar name? “It’s the sound that fabric makes when you rub it together,” she enlightens us!