Supriya Lele SS24 just showed at London Fashion Week, and basically the collection was an ode to the fashion girlies. The entire show was as feminine as it was bold, contrasting rippling sheer pastels with heavy black leather and essentially evoking a sense of how it feels to be a woman and an immigrant (as Lele proudly is herself) living and dressing in the bustling city of London.
Supriya Lele took inspiration from both the reality and the fantasy of being “a British woman born to Indian immigrant parents” for SS24, as was reflected in the entire collection’s aesthetic. Having been raised as Indian but growing up in Britain, she held tightly to both sources of her past, intertwining the provocative nature of British punk with the vibrancy of traditional Indian life.
Lele’s SS24 show traversed the barrier between two starkly different cultures with the effortlessness of a native of both; such as she is herself. Some garment’s sources of inspiration were more obvious, seen in draped sheer dresses and skirts which conveyed a sense of Lele’s Indian heritage by hinting that they were derived from loosely hung saris. She even reclaimed the sari blouse by turning it into a provocative, leather corset without losing any of the silhouette’s iconicity.
However, other aspects of the collection were more blurred across Britain and India, instead taking root in various sentimental moments Lele’s mentally scrapbooked throughout her life. The bright pops of lilac apparently allude to alludes to a lipstick worn by artist Jai Chuhan at the opening of her exhibition at Qrystal Partners (the art gallery founded by Supriya Lele and Donald Ryan that opened in May 2023), and the emerald green is from a flash of a passerby’s eyeshadow.
Lele also utilised different methods of creating her collection, branching out from traditional methods and trying her hand at something new. Handbags and belts were 3D printed to combine the aesthetics of the unequivocally modern and the sensually old, whilst a baby blue, leather corset-bra made in partnership with Bentley Motors from leather offcuts.
The personal nature of Supriya Lele’s inspiration always created a sense that we’re being invited into her life through her collections, and it’s exactly that that makes it feel so easy to see yourself in her clothing. For SS24 Supriya Lele channelled the Indian-born, London-based fashion girlies, and her collection had everything you’d expect them to love.
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