Lakmé Fashion Week 2026: Pearl Academy’s Gen Z Take on Indian Fashion

Indian fashion has always looked to its past to seek inspiration. Gen Z, however, is doing something bolder by returning to its roots and rewriting them on its own terms. At Lakmē Fashion Week in partnership with FDCI, the Fashion Design and Styling students of Pearl Academy made that case with ‘GenAnokhi: India, Worn Your Way’, presented at First Cut in New Delhi on 18 October 2026. Master artisans and young designers shared the platform to answer one question, i,e., what does Indian identity look like when the next generation gets to dress it?

The title played on ‘anokhi’, meaning unique or distinctive, and on ‘Gen’. It reads as a manifesto for a generation that moves easily between local roots and global influences and remakes both in its own voice.

Six Crafts, One Runway

First Cut, a platform from FDCI and Pearl Academy, puts emerging talent in front of the industry. This edition was built on collaboration. Six artisans joined the presentation, representing charpai weaving, zardozi embroidery, handloom wool weaving, block printing, gota patti and tassel work, and charkha spinning.

The students paired these techniques with contemporary silhouettes, experimental styling and reimagined textiles. The result was clothing that felt rooted yet personal, with the hands behind each craft sharing the stage with the minds reinventing it.

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For Aditi Srivastava, President, Pearl Academy, the collection captures a country at a turning point. “Today, India stands at a cultural threshold,” she stated in the news release. “For Indian Gen Z, the ‘new look’ is not about one silhouette, one ideal body or one prescribed form of elegance. It is fluid, local, hybrid, conscious and deeply personal,” she added. Sharing a sharpest perspective she mentioned, “Craft is no longer treated as nostalgia. It becomes attitude, surface, structure and statement.”

That idea ran through ‘GenAnokhi’. Tradition was not kept behind glass. It was cut, restyled and made to be worn.

A Generation That Knows

Antonio Maurizio Grioli, Dean, Interior & Fashion, Pearl Academy, backed the students’ vision. He pointed out that the collection, true to its name, has a glocal sensibility, i.e., it keeps a local touch, yet speaks to Gen Z and younger generations across the globe. “Gen Zs already know what they want. They are more aware and more conscious of where their clothes come from, more open to experimenting with identity, and more drawn to pieces that tell a story rather than simply follow a trend,” he noted.

Echoing this sentiment, Sunil Sethi, Chairman, FDCI, called ‘GenAnokhi’, “an exciting interpretation of Indian fashion by blending traditional craftsmanship with contemporary perspectives,” and said First Cut has been an important platform for giving emerging designers industry exposure.

Dressing the Modern Man

The evening also saw the launch of ‘The Ultimate Styling Guide for Modern Men’ by Sharad Mehra, Chairman, Pearl Academy, published by Penguin Random House India. The book looks past fleeting trends to fit, personal style, body proportions, colour and wardrobe essentials, making a case for more considered everyday dressing.

In an exclusive interaction with Outlook Luxe, Mehra shared the one style mantra he swears by. “Play with colours. That’s something I’ve always made my own. Normally you would not see me wearing a lot of designer stuff, but when it comes to vibrant colours, different colours, that’s always my thing,” he said. The runway clearly left its mark. “When I was watching the show, there was one model wearing a pink and purple shoe. My heart was in her shoes. I have to go and get it somehow,” he added, before noting, “For me it’s colours, but again, it’s different for everyone.”

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First Cut continues to connect age-old technique with new thinking. ‘GenAnokhi’ reflects a wider shift in how Gen Z approaches fashion, i.e., less interest in passing trends, more in personal identity, cultural confidence and experimentation.

India, it seems, is no longer something this generation simply inherits. It is something they wear, entirely their way.