A new wave of designers is redefining the landscape of Indian fashion one that values purpose as much as aesthetics. At Lakmē Fashion Week x FDCI’s GenNext 2025, presented by NIF Global, we recently saw emerging talents that are fusing storytelling, sustainability, and cultural heritage to craft a more conscious, expressive future for design. Hashtag Magazine spotlights the rising stars who are weaving purpose into every thread the designers shaping not just what we wear, but why we wear it.

This year’s GenNext 2025 cohort proves that the next generation isn’t just creating clothes they’re crafting conversations. From denim rebirths and handcrafted heritage to poetic sustainability and textile innovation, these visionaries are transforming Indian fashion into an art form rooted in authenticity, emotion, and soul.

1. Designer: Anam Hussain

Label: Anam Hussain
Collection: Cut-Putly
USP: A conceptual, sustainable exploration of empowerment through design.

Inspired by Rajasthan’s Kathputlis the puppets that dance between control and liberation  Anam Hussain’s Cut-Putly examines power, agency, and freedom through geometry and form. Structured, angular silhouettes represent restraint, while oversized shapes express release and individuality. The collection’s strength lies in its sustainability: over 1,000 kilograms of post-consumer denim waste was transformed through patchwork, crocheting, and hand-weaving into sculptural garments that balance grit with grace.

For Hussain, waste isn’t discarded matter it’s creative potential. With hints of crochet handbags and accessories in development, Cut-Putly sets the tone for a label that is as thoughtful as it is experimental.

2. Designer: Mohammed Anas Sheikh

Label: 23°N 69°E
Collection: Unnamed (Kachchh-Inspired)
USP: A poetic revival of Kachchh’s indigenous craft, rooted in minimalism and authenticity.

Mohammed Anas Sheikh’s collection celebrates Kachchh’s artisanal spirit weaving its heritage into modern silhouettes that exude quiet strength. Centered around Kala cotton, a rain-fed indigenous fibre, his pieces highlight broken Ajrakh block prints, mirror work embroidery, and hand-dyed hues of indigo, madder, soot, and off-white.

Sheikh’s designs embody imperfection as art. Each garment carries the imprint of time and the hand of its maker. “It’s not just about revival,” he notes, “it’s about ensuring the artisans behind the loom are seen, heard, and paid fairly.” His minimalist aesthetic allows the textiles to speak transforming craft into narrative, and heritage into identity.

3. Designer: Pranita Choudhury

Label: Gaach
Collection: Recalling
USP: A lyrical dialogue between nostalgia, memory, and cultural craftsmanship.

Through her label Gaach, Pranita Choudhury transforms Rabindranath Tagore’s timeless poem Purono Sei Diner Kotha into an emotive textile experience. Her collection, Recalling, pays homage to memory and belonging each garment a whisper from the past.

Working with natural silks like Eri, Chanderi, Pashmina, and linen, Choudhury employs eco-printing with dried leaves, kantha stitching, and Bengali script block prints to create a tactile sense of nostalgia. Muted hues of mustard, coral, sage, and blue evoke the patina of old photographs. Recalling is a tender reminder that memory, when woven into cloth, can become both art and archive.

4. Designer: Gaurav Jai Gupta

Label: Akaaro
Collection: Starlight
USP: A radiant exploration of silk’s luminosity and the craft of contemporary weaving.

In Starlight, Gaurav Jai Gupta of Akaaro celebrates the brilliance of silk through texture and tone. Known for his mastery of weave and structure, Gupta spent over a year developing textiles that push the boundaries of material innovation. He presented saris, jackets, and layered separates that celebrated pink and fuchsia in contemporary forms modern yet rooted in artisanal authenticity.

Handwoven silks, khadi silks, cottons, and kinji weaves come alive in shades of pink, fuchsia, and metallics, merging modern form with artisanal depth. For Gupta, sustainability is not a passing trend but a philosophy of design. Starlight stands as an ode to India’s textile traditions illuminated through contemporary craftsmanship that feels both timeless and new.

5. Designer: Amit Hansraj

Label: Inca
Collection: Autumn/Winter 2025
USP: A rhythmic reinterpretation of India’s handcrafted traditions into effortless modern wear.

Amit Hansraj’s Inca is a meditation on rhythm of stitches, weaves, and repetition. His Autumn/Winter 2025 collection fuses kantha, leheriya, and shibori techniques to create textural harmony. “These crafts are rooted in rhythm,” he explains. “We’ve used them not as motifs but as languages to build texture, layer, and dimension.”

The line features kantha-stitched jackets, leheriya-striped organza, and shibori-dyed drapes, alongside brocade paired with raffia and printed animal motifs on tissue. On the runway, India’s iconic supermodels brought nostalgia and elegance to life. Hansraj’s Inca encapsulates modern Indian luxury: heritage worn lightly, designed for movement, and steeped in emotion.

6. Designer: Anurag Gupta

Label: Waves of Innovation
Collection: An Ode to Hokusai
USP: A pioneering collaboration between design and science, translating art into sustainable textile innovation.

Blurring the line between art and engineering, Anurag Gupta’s An Ode to Hokusai draws inspiration from the iconic wave motifs of Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai. In partnership with IIT Delhi and Indigotex, Gupta developed Indiwool denim a groundbreaking textile that combines locally sourced wool with a waterless finishing process using ECOTEX PLASMA technology.

“The process was a dialogue between design and science,” Gupta says. “The textile carries both rawness and precision, mirroring Hokusai’s energy.” The resulting garments sculptural, fluid, and forward-thinking embody the next phase of fashion innovation, where craft, material, and sustainability meet to form a new kind of artistry.

7. Designers: Pankaj & Nidhi

Label: Pankaj & Nidhi

Collection: Araquis

USP: A futuristic ode to femininity where power, precision, and poetic storytelling converge.

With Araquis, Pankaj & Nidhi reimagined eveningwear through a bold, maximalist lens. The collection transported the audience into a surreal, sci-fi desert realm ruled by warrior princesses  women who embody strength, sensuality, and self-possession. Sculptural silhouettes, strong 1980s-inspired shoulders, and rich jewel tones of sapphire, amber, and onyx defined a visual language of modern regality.

Intricate appliqués, metallic embroideries, and layered textures shimmered under light like desert mirages each piece a study in controlled opulence. “It’s about strength meeting fluidity clothing that’s both powerful and poetic,” shares Pankaj. True to that philosophy, Araquis offered day-to-night adaptability from precision cut fitted dresses to dramatic embellished capes that transform with a simple shift in styling.

Bridging craftsmanship and contemporary technology, Pankaj & Nidhi continue to evolve their signature aesthetic: femininity not as fragility, but as a futuristic force fierce, luminous, and untamed.