Beautiful, fearless and confident, are the three words that come to mind when deconstructing Nikhil Thampi’s ‘Urban Untamed’ collection. Regardless of whether the rose-gold motifs, cape and pants duo or rib cut-out blazer made a fan out of you, you can’t deny the sharp cuts, striking colour combination and expert tailoring’s impact on the fashion industry, not to mention the glittering red carpet. Read on to see what the man himself has to say about his craft.

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On colours and textures

Our collection was split up into three different segments: Number one was white and silver—white signified the purity of love and silver is an androgynous colour, so it signified the power of the sexes. Women that wear masculine wear symbolise the equality in society.

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The second segment was a burst of colours and the main element was zip detailing—the point was to get two fabrics together with a zip to signify the thought of bringing together two ideologies.

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The third segment was metallic flowers. We decided to replicate something as fragile as a delicate flower using metal to signify how harsh people can be to something as pure as love.

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On the iconic suitcase

The suitcase came into fruition because we really want to expand to accessories. So, for the upcoming collections, you’ll see a hint of accessories. If we get a really good, fabulous response, we will talk about diversifying into accessories. This was the first time we tried to do bags. We found this really cute shaped bag lying in our office so we thought, why not abuse it and stuck stuff everywhere and said, let’s go for it!

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On his inspiration

My ultimate favourite designer is Tarun Tahiliani. I love his work—he’s an artist.

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On the styling trend he thinks is here for the long-haul

Androgyny—but in a safe and secure manner. Like women wearing boyfriend’s clothes, baggy pants, loose shirts, pencil skirts with loose shirts—you can see that on the international and global runways and it’s going to be very big this year.