A Celebration of Indian Folklore Reimagined Through Signature Prints and Textile Narratives
London, February 24, 2025 – Aarti Vijay Gupta returned to London Fashion Week with her much-anticipated Fall/Winter 2025 collection, unveiling a masterful interplay of heritage and modernity. Staying true to her artistic roots, Aarti Vijay Gupta once again turns to India’s rich cultural history as the perfect mood board, working alongside the inheritors of Kolkata’s storied Kalighat and Patua traditions to craft a collection that reimagines folklore through her signature prints.
A Tapestry of Culture: The Inspiration Behind FW25
FW25 is a deeply immersive collection that finds its roots in Kolkata’s historic Kalighat and Patua art forms, both renowned for their bold lines and striking visual narratives. Working closely with the inheritors of these traditions, Gupta’s collection refracts Indian folklore into her signature art-infused prints, creating a visual language that bridges the past and present.
At the heart of this collection is the artisans’ journey—their struggle to keep centuries-old craftsmanship alive while embracing modern-day influences. FW25 showcases the beauty of Midnapore’s traditional scroll paintings, a storytelling art form where vibrant depictions of mythology, folklore, and daily life are expressed through intricate hand-painted details. Accompanying these designs is a tribute to “Patua Feet”, a cultural phenomenon where folk artisans narrate their artistry through music and lyrical expression, blending storytelling with artistic preservation.
Aarti Vijay Gupta says; “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.”
Through a sophisticated yet earthy palette of deep indigos, rustic reds, and muted golds, Gupta weaves mythology into fabric, negotiating the space between past and present, structure and fluidity, preservation and reinvention. Hand-painted textiles become a canvas for these historic art forms, while contemporary tailoring lends them a new voice. The result is a collection that does more than honour tradition—it propels it forward, making it relevant for today’s world.
A total of 35 looks were created for the collection, which showcased 25 female and 10 male silhouettes, and were also gender fluid. As London Fashion Week continues to celebrate global narratives, Aarti Vijay Gupta’s collection WAs a homage to cultural preservations, transforming folklore into wearable art for today’s world.