Indian fashion house Falguni Shane Peacock has returned to New York Fashion Week after an absence of almost a decade.
Celebrity stylist Law Roach, known for dressing Zendaya, Priyanka Chopra and Tom Holland, served as creative director for the show. The brand's return underpinned how India is emerging as the next fashion powerhouse, with a collection that easily blended breezy American-style sportswear with intricate couture-level handwork from India. The collection's name? New York It Girl-meets-Mumbai.
Having launched almost 20 years ago, FSP is run by the husband-wife team of Shane and Falguni Peacock, and has built a name for decadent couture that resonates with both an Indian and a western audience, shifting easily from sumptuous bridalwear for a home audience, to dressing the likes of Kim Kardashian and Lady Gaga.
Adept at blending Indian sensibilities with an international aesthetic, FSP has long understood the need to modify classic silhouettes to entice a wider audience, without losing sight of either. This has manifested through subtle touches such as shifting blouses into corsets and making loose lengths of cloth into stitched drapery.
In this show, the label took that one step further by leaning into traditional surface decoration, but now across modern sportswear and topped that with the most American of motifs – the baseball cap.
One sporty minidress arrived with its mesh encrusted with handmade metallic flowers, and was paired with wrists stacked with gold bangles, plus a baseball cap. Elsewhere a tracksuit was presented with its top cut away to reveal a formed corset densely embellished with crystals.
The high-low mix continued with a sleek satin trench coat sliced into a jacket and skirt, the hips smothered in silver beadwork, while a form-fitted dress had the several gymwear-style straps, but were decorated with a checkerboard of black and silver crystals.
While India has a legacy of hand work that stretches back millennia and is utilised heavily by labels from the West, few designers have truly been able to break into the overseas market. However, this seems set to change as the fashion spotlight is beginning to settle on the nation, highlighted when Christian Dior showed its pre-fall collection in Mumbai in March this year. With this return to New York, and backed by the powerful Law Roach, Falguni Shane Peacock looks well placed to smash through the barriers.
