Abraham & Thakore

Summary

Abraham & Thakore is one of India’s most thriving and respected design resources for fashion.

This design label was initially launched in 1992 by David Abraham and Rakesh Thakore, graduates of the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad who were later joined by Kevin Nigli, a design graduate of NIFT New Delhi.

Vision

Each Abraham & Thakore collection continues the exploration of developing a quiet and modern design voice while simultaneously drawing on the rich traditional vocabulary of Indian design and craft. An important aspect of the different collections presented each season is the very modern synergy between fashion and lifestyle with a unifying vision for the way the contemporary urban consumer dresses and lives whether in New Delhi, London or Tokyo.

Exhibitions

The first fashion show was presented in 2010 at the India Fashion Week in Delhi that marked the beginning of a slow shift in A&T’s design approach as it was now designing product for a consumer with different requirements and distinctly different cultural attitudes from its earlier European clients. Each runway show is an opportunity to communicate specific interests and concerns of the brand. A&T usually prepares one or two new collections for the runway each year. This is because it usually takes around four months to develop a runway collection from fabric to silhouette, due to the complexity and slow nature of textile development, experimentation with new techniques and structures.

The work of Abraham & Thakore has been exhibited at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts in New Delhi and in the Volkart Foundation sponsored exhibition on Khadi.

Exhibition display at The Fabric Of India, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK in a British Council exhibition on contemporary Indian design (2015-16).

AW 11-12 Double ikat silk houndstooth sari and shirt, now in the permanent archives of Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

Publications

THE FABRIC OF INDIA – by Rosemary Crill, V&A Publishing
“Handloom saris have taken on an edgier look under the well-established label of Abraham & Thakore. Their aesthetic trademark is geometric forms in black, white or neutral shades, occasionally with splashes of yellow or red, which they also translate into their fashionable kurta-pyjama combinations.”

FASHION INDIA – by Phyllida Jay, Thames & Hudson
“Abraham & Thakore has produced textile-based fashion that makes them both ‘designer’s designers’ in the arena of fashion and highly respected among the experts and practitioners in the rarefied arena of Indian craft advocacy.”

INDIA CONTEMPORARY DESIGN – by Divia Patel, Roli Books in association with V&A Publishing
“For the Autumn/Winter/2011/12 collection they produced a spectacular silk fabric which imitated the traditional British tessellated houndstooth pattern using the complex process of double-ikat weaving. The transference of a design associated with classic western menswear into a handwoven silk sari…. makes it into a stylish, clever, and bold blend of cross-cultural influences.”

References

• https://www.abrahamandthakore.com/aboutus.php
• https://www.facebook.com/abrahamandthakore/
• https://www.livemint.com/