Designer Anjali Phougat brought together two traditions from different parts of the world, Japanese kintsugi and India’s worship of the Devi, for her collection at LA Fashion Week. Explaining the philosophy behind the collection, she said the two traditions share a deeper understanding of beauty, resilience and the power of transformation.
She said, “Japan’s kintsugi comes from wabi-sabi, the philosophy that nothing is perfect, nothing is permanent, and that is precisely where beauty lives. Shaktism is one of Hinduism’s great traditions and the one that puts the Divine Feminine on the throne as the Supreme Being itself.”
At the heart of this connection, Anjali explained, is the concept of Shakti, the primordial cosmic energy that sustains the universe. She said, “The core idea is Shakti: primordial cosmic energy, the power that makes the universe move. There’s a famous line, ‘Shiva without Shakti is shava’ (a corpse). Meaning: consciousness alone does nothing; it is the feminine energy that creates, sustains, and transforms everything.”
“The goddess isn’t a consort here. She is the ultimate reality. Adi Parashakti, the first, supreme power from which even the male gods draw their strength,” she added.
For Anjali, the connection between the two philosophies lies in their understanding of how adversity can become a source of strength. She believes both traditions recognise the value of what has been endured rather than treating it as something to conceal. She said, “India’s Shakti tradition says the Devi is Adi Parashakti, the primordial energy: she is never diminished by what she endures; she metabolises it into power.”
“Two civilisations, an ocean apart, arrived at the same truth: the wound, honoured instead of hidden, becomes the most precious part of the object. I didn’t fuse two aesthetics; I reunited two philosophies,” she added.
The collection featured eight couture looks in shades of red, with gold detailing along the seams, drawing a connection between the nine nights of Navratri dedicated to the Devi and the collection’s presentation on the tenth night at the Dolby Theatre. Colour and construction were central to the storytelling. Anjali explained that red represented several aspects of Indian culture and feminine power, rather than a single emotion or idea.
She said, “In India, red is never just a colour; it is sindoor, it is the bridal threshold, it is blood, and it is shakti itself. I built each of the eight looks in a different shade of red, crimson, scarlet, sindoor, and wine so that red reads as a spectrum of reclamation, not a single note.”
The gold detailing, meanwhile, was designed to follow the construction of each garment, much like the gold used to repair cracks in the Japanese art of kintsugi. “The gold is structural, not decorative: it follows the engineering of each garment, necklines, seams, the drape’s fault lines, and the way kintsugi gold follows the crack. Fashion usually hides its seams. This collection gilds them,” she said.
For Anjali, presenting the collection at a global fashion platform was also an opportunity to assert the place of Indian philosophy and craftsmanship in international fashion. She said, “Fashion weeks are not just trade shows; they are where the world decides what beauty is allowed to look like. For decades, Indian aesthetics were welcomed as ‘inspiration’ on Western runways but rarely as authorship.”
“Walking the Dolby Theatre, the stage that hosts the Oscars, with a collection rooted in Indian philosophy and Japanese craft, is a statement of authorship. Our stories are not regional colours; they are universal ideas. For every Indian designer told our work is ‘too ethnic’ or ‘too much’, this walk is the answer, and I intend it to be heard,” she ended.
