August wrapped, here’s everything you missed in fashion and culture

The fashion and cultural landscape in August has been anything but quiet. Designers unveiled bold collections, heritage found fresh voices, and conversations around authorship and craft took centre stage. If you’ve been too busy soaking up the last of summer, here’s your ultimate catch-up on everything that defined the month so that you can step into September with your style radar sharpened!

La Maison Brahm: Reclaiming India’s craft legacy

On National Handloom Day (August 7), La Maison Brahm—founded by Sufia Lambrou, hosted a gathering at æquō, uniting artisan families, patrons, and thought leaders to confront a critical question: who holds authorship of India’s craft legacy?

By incubating artisan families and reframing craft as luxury, La Maison Brahm is rewriting the narrative, ensuring India’s handloom traditions are not just preserved but empowered. More than an event, it marked the beginning of a movement to reclaim and revalue heritage on Indian terms.

Punit Balana celebrates a decade in style

Marking 10 years of design, Punit Balana returned to his muse, Jaipur, with a grand showcase at Rambagh Palace and the launch of a new flagship at Barwara House. His Festive 2025 collection, Amer, drew from the timeless beauty of Amer Fort, spotlighting chaandi tille ka kaam, gota patti, and coin embroidery in modern silhouettes. Ananya Panday stunned as a showstopper in a Gulabi Gulal lehenga, while muses Bhumi Pednekar, Diana Penty, Sunny Kaushal, and Gurfateh Pirzada joined the celebration.

HUEMN’s ‘Not AW’25’ collection

HUEMN’s latest drop, titled Not AW’25, is a sharp, sensual reworking of the brand’s signature codes. Fronted by an unexpected campaign featuring veteran journalist Saurabh Dwivedi, the collection experiments with silk crepe, organza, net lycra, and cotton, anchored in hand-embroidered motifs stitched over 18+ hours.

Highlights include sculpted lycra dresses, gloved tops, and engineered three-way shirts with versatile tie-up panels. The standout pieces are the pleated shorts-skirt hybrid with removable pleats and a horse motif embroidered with synthetic human hair—a precise technical intervention reinforcing HUEMN’s experimental edge. With motifs of snarling dogs fused with flowers and horses roaming open landscapes, the collection captures a balance of contrast, duality, and freedom.

Siddhartha Bansal’s ‘The Great Indian Rhapsody’

With The Great Indian Rhapsody, Siddhartha Bansal pays homage to the everyday muses of India—the working women whose instinctive layering and styling have long defined vernacular couture.

Maximalist, unapologetic, and deeply rooted in heritage, the collection reimagines familiar silhouettes into high-fashion statements. Chintz-soaked bustiers, bubble skirts, draped dresses, and stylised kedia and koti blouses reworked into couture forms. Layered prints, potli-inspired pockets, and textural excess come together in a celebration of resilience, grace, and unabashed style.

Shantnu & Nikhil’s ‘Metropolis’

Shantnu & Nikhil’s latest couture outing, Metropolis, dismantles predictability with its vision of a new-age ceremonial man. Architectural drapes collide with sharp tailoring, masculinity flirts with ornament, and tradition fractures into rebellion.

“Structure in command. Drapes in motion.” Every silhouette embodies poetic power, refined rebellion, and a daring redefinition of modern Indian couture. 

Suneet Varma opens a new store in Mehrauli 

With a stunning new store in Mehrauli, Delhi, couturier Suneet Varma marked yet another milestone in his three-decade-long journey in Indian fashion. The designer, known for his intricate craftsmanship and opulent couture, is also set to unveil a flagship store in Hyderabad soon. Adding to the excitement, Varma will present his very first ready-to-wear collection at Lakmé Fashion Week this October. With fresh projects on the horizon, the new Mehrauli store stands as a celebration of his enduring legacy, where heritage artistry meets modern luxury.

Whether it was designers reworking centuries-old craft into couture or new voices reframing luxury through authorship and identity, August reminded us that style is never static; it evolves, adapts, and disrupts. With September’s fashion calendar promising even more statements and spectacles, consider this your warm-up for a season that’s only just beginning.

Image credits: The brands

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