The Supriya Vision: on Goa’s coastline, Supriya Lele reinvents India for herself

I could not—and still absolutely cannot—get Supriya Lele’s Spring-Summer 2022 (SS22) campaign and collection out of my head. It has been by far some of the most powerful and artistically striking work I’ve seen all year, and its niche storyline is somehow weaved perfectly with the clothing itself.

Shot in the Indian state of Goa at an electrifying nighttime, the campaign brings feelings of uneasiness, yet is simultaneously candid and euphoric. Shot by photographer Sohrab Hura, the photos play into Goa’s coastline and raw, earthy feel. Sheer fabric with cutouts, fishnet textures, and a dreamy sense of push-and-pull through the intricacy of clothing folds creates the collection’s core into an almost folkloric, mermaid-esque story. A designer and icon of youth fashion, Supriya Lele made me relive summer in a certain kind of simplicity and divinity I had never seen before.

Having traveled back to India’s Nagpur and Jabalpur to visit family during childhood, London-based Lele still flies back to India each season, commonly shooting her collections there. “I love going back to India because as a kid I didn’t really understand my connection with it. But as an adult, when I’ve been going back, I feel really connected to it,” she told reporters at Browns.

It’s undeniable that British-Indian designer Supriya Lele’s Indian heritage is extremely important in her creative process. Integrating traditional textures and patterns from the household she grew up in, she translates all of it into her work. Minimalistic and sensual, she utilizes mesh, sheer fabrics, traditional Indian saris, and dupatta scarves as common motifs. “Taking my work back into the context of where my family [is] from is really important. I am literally revisiting it through my work.”

Photo: Federica Tenti, Supriya Lele AW19)

However, the integration of both her Indian and British side is what makes her work unique. Growing up alongside punk goth and metal culture in the UK, Lele never fails to draw inspiration from the 90’s, which is evident in her clothing’s vibrant colors and see-through quality. Striking that balance is what’s important to her. She handles references to her heritage with the utmost care and examination, in a way specific to the Supriya vision and the liminal space between her two cultures. Refusing to use Sanskrit text or Hindi iconography in her designs, she aims to reinterpret her culture in a contemporary way, claiming that “it should feel cleverer than that, more modern, fresher.”

Much of Lele’s contemporary inspiration comes from youth on the streets of London, whose style she enjoys incorporating into her work. “It’s about [...] how people curate themselves. I find that really exciting,” she told The Face. With an emphasis on personal expression, she described it in Diet Coke’s “Love What You Love” campaign as “how you put things together and how you see the world– style is ultimately how you view the world and yourself, right?”

Looking from afar, this ethos is what must have contributed to Lele’s worldwide popularity. Her clothing has already catched the attention of celebrities like Bella Hadid and Dua Lipa, who wore a Supriya dress on her 25th birthday and posted it on Instragram.

Originally having studied architecture and later falling into fashion, Lele believes creativity can stem from anywhere, and anyone.

“...It can be across science, medicine… it comes from quite a personal place for me. I always want to keep going and make interesting things.” She added that “right now, with the things that are going on politically it’s important to be creative as it allows people to feel some sort of escapism and optimism.”

Photos [above]: Alessandro Luciani / Gorunway.com, Supriya Lele Fall 2022

Originally having studied architecture and later falling into fashion, Lele believes creativity can stem from anywhere, and anyone.

“...It can be across science, medicine… it comes from quite a personal place for me. I always want to keep going and make interesting things.” She added that “right now, with the things that are going on politically it’s important to be creative as it allows people to feel some sort of escapism and optimism.”

From a family full of medical professionals, Lele managed to draw inspiration from them and created a collection inspired by medical uniforms, highlighting once again the endless facets of her heritage as inspiration. She told Fashion East that “I look to my background as a constant source [of inspiration]. There’s so much to explore, it can vary each season.”

And so we saw Lele back in India again, this time with a shoot in Goa on the edge of ocean waves. When asked why she keeps going back to her mother country during an i-D interview, she expressed that she “felt this quite intense need to pull it into India again this season, but not in the same way that I have done before; in a semi-sentimental way. It needed to feel more present, more current, more raw.” Having described her workflow as an “ebb and flow,” all the ideas come together as pieces of a puzzle in the collection’s spontaneous nature.

“We consciously chose to shoot at night because that makes a landscape more unknown,” Hura explained. “You feel very isolated, but it’s also a time of magic if you allow for it to happen. We want the work to have its own feel, its mystery and moments of doubt.”

by ELAINA LI