Sun-faded colours brushed against saturated ones. Draped skirts, borrowed from the wrap of a sari, swayed with every step. A lungi glittered in beaded madras check. On September 22, Dhruv Kapoor opened Milan Fashion Week with ‘Presence’, his Spring Summer ’27 collection, and every look seemed to carry the quiet marks of time.
In his previous collection, Kapoor looked at the rushed pace we live at and the rituals that fill the time between one thing and the next. ‘Presence’ turned to the moment we are already in, and it asked for something most runways don’t, i.e., your awareness.
“We are constantly thinking about the next meeting, the next goal or what comes after, and somewhere in that rush we stop noticing the present,” said the designer. “For me, ‘Presence’ is not about sitting still. It is about observation and awareness.”
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For Indian fashion designer Dhruv Kapoor, Milan is personal ground. He studied and worked in the city, and showing at its fashion week had long been part of his vision for the label. “Being from India naturally informs the way we think and design,” he said, “but we have never chased a stereotypical idea of India for the world.”
The Heritage Wardrobe, Re-engineered
His design philosophy showed most clearly in how he treated India’s most familiar garments. With the lungi, vest and sari, Kapoor was drawn to their intent and engineering, not nostalgia.
The lungi’s wrap was pre-fixed and given belt loops, and that beaded version took 25 days to make. The sari’s wrapping technique became draped skirts in several configurations. The vest, petticoat and kachha shorts from Spring Summer ’26 returned too, looking used, worn and lived in.
This is where ‘Presence’ found its poetry. Crumpled checks, pebbled leather, faded denim, raw edges and embroidery that seemed to grow across the cloth all recorded the passing of time. “It wasn’t about making something look old or distressed,” Kapoor explained, “but about capturing different stages of change and allowing time to become part of the surface.”
Cricket, Reconsidered
The limited PUMA X RCB X Dhruv Kapoor capsule brought the energy of the stands to the runway. Kapoor held on to cricket’s sense of community, starting with the varsity jacket for its ties to team identity, then changed the proportions and added handcraft and embroidery. “It still feels familiar, but seen from a different perspective,” he shared.
The looks were finished with sculptural frames from Helsinki eyewear house Paloceras, a regular collaborator. Futuristic eyewear with time-worn clothes? Not a contradiction for Kapoor. “‘Presence’ isn’t really about looking back,” he said. “It looks at how things change with time, how they grow, age, transform and move forward.”
When asked what he would take from the collection, he singled out the layered outerwear and the PUMA X RCB jackets, reflecting his personal style. “I love pieces that have complexity in their construction but still feel incredibly easy to wear,” he expressed.
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And beyond the wardrobe? “The idea of observing more,” he said. “Not necessarily to move slower, but to be more aware while moving,” he added. Weeks after the show, it is the thought that stays.
