Bright and colourful, Fabindia’s festive apparel collection ’21, Jashn-e-Riwaaz looks gorgeous. Dipali Patwa, group head of brand, community and digital, Fabindia Group of Companies, decodes the line.
Jashn-e-Riwaaz looks lovely. What is the mood board?
Thank you. Coming out of this tumultuous year, we wanted to symbolise the spiritual journey of light over darkness, positive vibes, intimate gatherings and appreciating the time with close family and friends. The joy of celebrating life! The mood is of homecoming and the appreciation of traditions, rituals, friendships and generations of memories.
It is a great festive lookbook because of the colours and the art. Tell us what kind of heritage has gone into its making?
Our lookbooks and style guides are a mere reflection of what our design teams create along with our artisans and crafts. The process is a beautiful one to watch the ideas come to life, how designs on paper turn into threads and textures, which in turn become heirloom pieces with timeless traditions to be passed on to the next generation. The beauty of our festive collections, whether it is apparel or home, is its timeless elegance and use of craft.
Can you take us through menswear in particular?
Fabindia is known for its traditional menswear. Our recent introductions of slim-fit kurtas long and short versus comfort kurtas offer a variety of shapes and fabrics which can only be found at Fabindia. My favourite has been the Pathani kurta with pockets that you can wear even with your jeans and make it super fun! Even in the vest category, we have got a large selection of fits and fabrics which make for a stylish festive statement. Not to forget our bespoke custom tailoring for men — pick your fabric, pick your fit, pick your collar and sleeve and make it your own!
For the men who might still want to stick with western this season, you have to check out our new men’s westernwear with bush shirts, button-downs, comfort and slim fits in prints and solids... (they are) to die for. Pair them with our chinos and you are good to go. Plus this season we have a special collaboration with Desi Hangover for Fabindia men’s woven jootis… now that just makes you take a step in the right direction for festive!
Coming out of this tumultuous year, we wanted to symbolise the spiritual journey of light over darkness, positive vibes, intimate gatherings and appreciating the time with close family and friends
— Dipali Patwa, group head of brand, community and digital, Fabindia Group of Companies
As a brand that is so vintage, how do you make it modern every single time?
Ah! You call us vintage... I say what is old is new again. What goes around comes around. But jokes aside, Fabindia’s DNA is timeless. For 61 years the brand has managed to stay relevant and shown resilience. Clearly the teams are doing something right and magical to speak to our community and our consumers year after year who have supported us and keep coming back to us. We are very fortunate to have such a loyal community and we are hoping to continue with our secret sauce to staying contemporary and relevant year on year. Keep checking out our social media channels @fabindiaofficial and @fabindiahome to learn more.