Sometimes work is the greatest healer. Indian couturier Gaurav Gupta believed that giving his life partner Navkirat Sodhi something to look forward to, something that would help her on her journey to recovery, would be the answer. So last autumn he began working on a collection that directly related the harrowing experience of a near fatal accident that happened last June in Delhi.
A candle was knocked over and Sodhi was consumed in flames. Gupta’s hands were burnt trying to put out the fire. Fifty-five per cent of Sodhi’s body was burnt, she underwent several surgeries and was given a 50 per cent chance of survival.
Days before he was due to be in Paris to present his autumn 2024 haute couture collection. “I didn’t know what was happening, our lives were completely shaken,” recalls Gupta on a video call from Delhi.
“She was in hospital two and half months and in September started walking again. So I started thinking that I wanted to give her something to look forward to because she was going through so much. I wanted to put a goal in front of us that inspires us to move forward,” he explains.
Their life-changing experience evolved into the deeply personal haute couture collection Gupta presented in Paris at the end of January, titled Across the Flame.
There were gowns reflecting the flames that engulfed the spirit, through to dresses that portrayed the different stages of her recovery. The metal mask and breastplate was for Gupta a symbol of armour and protection. As Sodhi said at the time: “In life’s fluidity, it is the mettle of the spirit that keeps us together”.
There was finely stitched distressed denim that seemingly represented Sodhi’s bandages, embellished with ghungroos, or bells, capturing, as Gupta explains, the sounds of the cosmic universe. Another beautiful ball gown was made of brocade they discovered on a trip to Benares in December, covered in a mantra about solace and strength that was repeated across the model’s face.
The show was a profound part of their healing and opened with Sodhi, who is a poet and performer, walking barefoot with a sheer dress revealing her scars, reciting a poem about her experience to the rhythmic sounds of the tabla.
“It was very important for us personally, and after eight months we felt a sense of release,” says Gupta. “I told her that if she didn’t feel comfortable, even at the last minute, she wouldn’t have to open the show. But five minutes before she took off her stockings and pressure garments [that she must wear] and a friend oiled her legs.”
An accident like that reminds you of the fragility of life. “There were multiple emotions, and I know that I went through PTSD because I was the primary caregiver throughout the whole process. I didn’t know I had it in me to be a caregiver.”
The pair used to call each other “twin flames”, not predicting that would become a dreadful reality – a voluminous draped orange chiffon gown wrapping twins in the show embodied this. “We’ve been together since high school, living together for nearly 25 years,” and he admits, “I wouldn’t have survived if something had happened to her.” Their universe completely shifted and Sodhi says they have bonded beyond the physical dimension. She is deeply spiritual, more so, Gupta admits, than himself.
“There were many times when she was not in a state of consciousness and therefore unable to practise her spiritual self, so I brought in a shamanic healer to work with us in the ICU.”
“We are each other’s sounding board in life,” says Gupta of their connection. “Creativity is a part of my life, and she has been an inspiration and my muse. We stand for something together, for life’s choices and not being defined in boxes.” So, this show was in gratitude of survival and a celebration of resilience.
The haute couture show in Paris was Gupta’s fourth, having debuted in January 2023. After studying at Central Saint Martins in London and then working for five years with the avant-garde designer Hussein Chalayan, Gupta returned to India and launched his eponymous label in 2005.
As a designer, he is non-conformist, working mostly with structured draping on a mannequin creating clothes of extraordinary sculptural shapes and lightness that in some designs appear to defy gravity. Examples include the memorable blue whirlwind dress worn by Cardi B to the Grammys in 2023 and the lime green twisted and draped sari dress Beyonce wore on the Atlanta leg of her Renaissance tour.
Just over two years have passed since that showcasing in Paris, “but it has made a significant difference to us,” says the designer. His eveningwear and demi-couture are now stocked in between 20 and 25 global stores, including Harrods, Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus, Al Othman in Kuwait and Bloomingdale’s in Dubai. He is increasing his base of global couture clients each season from Beverly Hills to Saudi Arabia and has five flagships in India.
“In places like India there are no clear definitions between couture and ready-to-wear because the industry here thrives on wedding wear and that brings out a lot of couture. There is a resonance between Gulf culture and Indian culture, especially for large occasions when being extravagant is part of their lifestyle,” he says.
Gupta wants his clothes “to tickle their clients’ imagination; to make them think; to feel celebrated; I would love to share an expansion of minds when I am interacting with people,” he explains. “I want them to feel spiritual.” In this collection Gupta wanted people to see that “through the flames of adversity, we found not just survival, but a rebirth that redefines the boundaries of creation and love”.
