Cool Pool Days

In between a six month period between the time when I was tagged innocuously by designers Miu Niku in this cute little illustration on Instagram above wearing their A/W 14-5 collection and the present day, sisters Nikita and Tina Sutradhar from Mumbai, India won the surprise EUR100,000 special prize given by LVMH.  They stood in front of the likes of Raf Simons, Phoebe Philo and Nicolas Ghesquière back in May to present their impressive graduate collection from the London College of Fashion BA, which caught the eye with primary bold colour blocking, texture contrasts and layered up silhouettes that felt like unexpected Lego pieces coming together.  I borrowed a few of the pieces back in March, after following links on an Insta-lust Instagram trail from that initially tagged photo, and was ready to shoot them for Business of Fashion for my young designer Bubble and Speak column, but then the LVMH prize hub-a-hub was already brewing.  And before you know it, Miuniku was the surprise winner of what was a surprise prize.  From BA graduates, the duo were now catapulted to a whole new echelon of fashion’s next big thing, and that’s before the money from LVMH has even hit their bank accounts.

Wearing Miuniku AW 14-5 in Paris back in March – photograph by Adam Katz Sinding of Le 21eme

In a later piece for Business of Fashion, I noted that Miuniku were part of a new wave of designers coming from India that are bucking the cliches of ornate decoration and ethnic dress, and instead using local manufacturing resources and local modes of craftsmanship to their advantage and aesthetic curves.  Miuniku are perhaps the most leftfield or curveball of all the designers that I talked about, as they admitted that the fashion industry and media in their native India didn’t necessarily understand what they were all about.  They’re planning on moving back to London, to base their business there, so they can be closer to the industry and to be amongst young designer peers.  Their ties to India though will be through their manufacturing to keep their prices reasonable so that they don’t price themselves out of the market before they’ve even properly begun. Memories of Mumbai also still linger in their work.

In Paris last week, they presented their first follow up post graduate S/S 15 collection entitled “Cool Pool”, inspired by hot summer days (plenty of those in India) hanging out by a pool near their childhood home in Mumbai.  They use the words “Swim” and “Cool Pool” to iterate their point as well as a repeated wave motif alongside their bright colour combos and techy synthetic fabric mixes that evoke poolside toys and towels and the surfaces of pool tiling.  It’s a hot summer but not as you know it through tropical prints and body conscious and flesh-baring silhouettes but as the title suggests, the coolest of pool attire that doesn’t involve itsy bitsy teeny weeny bikinis – that’s music to my ears.  The aftershock of winning the LVMH prize is now winding down so that the designers can really begin to experience the benefits of the prize money and the mentorship.  It’s incredibly exciting to see Miuniku be the youngest (both in terms of age and experience) of the recipients get this mega kickstart to their brand.  Even more so when they make their way over to London where I can get even closer to their uplifting and colour-filled block party.