London Fashion Week (LFW) will see fashion designer Aarti Vijay Gupta bring the best of art and fashion together on the runway once again.
Elated to showcase for the second time at LFW, Gupta is all set to narrate a special story through her Fall/Winter 2025 collection, Kalighat Stories. “What excites me most about bringing my work to the LFW [London Fashion Week] runway is being able to represent Indian art on the world stage,” expresses fashion designer Aarti Vijay Gupta, adding, “Traditional artists are often swallowed up in the global conversation, so to be able to spotlight their work at a global forum feels special to me. I wanted to rephrase the unbalanced narrative around the representation of Indian art through this collection, using the old to make new.”
Kalighat Stories is inspired by the storied Kalighat painting tradition of Kolkata – a 19th-century folk art style known for its bold brushwork, fluid lines, and vivid storytelling. Originating near the Kalighat temple, this art form was once a visual chronicle of mythology, social narratives and daily life, capturing the essence of a transitioning India.
Gupta reimagines the Kalighat painting through her modernist lens, translating its essence into striking prints and silhouettes. A labour of love that took five months to craft, Gupta spent time working with the generationally skilled artisans of Midnapore to breathe life into her newest collection, and what struck her most was their unpretentious devotion to their craft – a facet she was determined to spotlight on the world stage.
According to Gupta, the theme of the show revolves around a seminal print from the collection – a mother and child sit amidst Kolkata’s picturesque Sundarbans, surrounded by the quiet gaze of the forest’s inhabitants. Rendered skillfully by an artisan from Midnapore, the print captures that ephemeral quality of maternal love. Gupta sews together that place between art and fashion, ancient and contemporary – nestled in the serenity of these traditional depictions of nature, animals and people of Kolkata.
A total of 35 looks have been created for the collection, which will showcase 25 female and 10 male silhouettes, and are also gender fluid. The collection is a homage to cultural preservations, transforming folklore into wearable art for today’s world.
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