‘Not East meets West, just great design from India to the world’: Gaurav Gupta’s global impact on couture
Even a decade ago, only a handful of Indian designers were recognised on a global scale. Today, Indian couturiers are dressing international icons like Blackpink’s Lisa, Halle Berry and Viola Davis—and making a significant impact on the global fashion landscape. Among the leading names driving this transformation is Gaurav Gupta.
Known for his sculptural approach to couture and for being the third Indian designer to present at Paris Couture Week, Gupta has built a global clientele through his distinctive fusion of traditional Indian craftsmanship with avant-garde design philosophy. His brand, Gaurav Gupta Couture, exemplifies how Indian fashion is reshaping luxury on the world stage.
The philosophy driving this approach is fundamentally transformative: “I never see tradition and innovation as opposites. Zardozi, Benarasi weaving, hand-done threadwork: these are living techniques. When we use them in abstract or futuristic contexts, they become timeless. My goal is to carry India forward, not just preserve it.” This vision has positioned Indian designers like Gupta at the cutting edge of global luxury fashion, where heritage becomes the foundation for radical innovation rather than a constraint.
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Gaurav Gupta is using fashion as a tool for storytelling
Gaurav Gupta as Paris Couture Week
This elevation stems from a sophisticated understanding of how to translate cultural DNA into contemporary luxury. Rather than simply applying traditional motifs to Western silhouettes, leading Indian couturiers are developing entirely new design languages. The free-flowing, fluid nature of sari draping—a technique Indian designers have mastered over generations—provides the foundation for this approach. This innate understanding of how fabric moves and flows around the body gives Indian designers a unique advantage in creating garments that feel both structured and organic.
Gupta explains his process of creating free-flowing sculptural gowns. “For me, ideas come as visuals. Sometimes they’re in the form of sculptures, sometimes waves, sometimes energy. The process starts in stillness, in imagination, and then moves through sketching, draping, building and refining. The intangible becomes tangible through texture, silhouette and material.”
“Sculpture has taught me how to think in space, not just on paper. Couture is just sculpture that moves,” Gupta says. This perspective has helped him create elaborately sculptural garments that function as wearable art installations, where it feels like the designer is “not merely draping fabric, but shaping energy”.
Halle Berry wearing Gaurav Gupta Couture at Cannes
A model wearing the same gown from Gaurav Gupta Couture
The integration of traditional Indian craftsmanship with avant-garde design philosophies has created compelling narratives that resonate globally. The most recent example of this was the black caped gown that Bollywood star Aishwarya Rai wore to the Cannes red carpet. On the back of the cape was a shloka or scripture from the Hindu religious book Bhagavad Gita. It exemplified how a specific cultural symbol can transcend boundaries through clever design.
Gupta says, “The Bhagavad Gita shloka embroidered into the back of her Banarasi brocade cape is something deeply personal. It reads: ‘You have the right to perform your actions, but not to the fruits of those actions’. It’s not just decoration — it’s intention.”
“The cape itself is handwoven Banarasi brocade, which grounds the look in heritage even as the form moves into a galactic space. These contrasts excite me,” he adds.
Viola Davis in Gaurav Gupta Couture
Shakira’s Gaurav Gupta gown features metal in its bodice
Gupta is equally at ease using traditional materials like Banarasi silk as he is with metal casts. “Metal lets me bring sculpture into fashion in a visceral way. It holds memory. It doesn’t collapse,” Gupta says about his innovative material choices. “I’ve used cast metal for shoulder accents, bodices, even necklines—always to create a contrast against soft draping or sheer elements. Going forward, I’d love to explore full metal constructions, maybe even couture pieces that feel architectural, like wearable installations.” These experiments with materials show how Indian designers, usually known for using the country’s indigenous fabrics like silk and cotton, are ready to push technical boundaries too.
Looking toward the future, the vision is clear and ambitious. “I want the legacy to be about transformation. About taking something intangible—an emotion, a shape, a story—and turning it into something people feel when they wear it,” Gupta says. “And I want Indian craftsmanship and imagination to be seen as global, not niche. Not ‘East meets West’— just great design, from India to the world.”
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