Gaurav Gupta’s Living Sculptures

We recognize Gaurav Gupta for dressing the likes of Beyoncé, Cardi B, and Alia Bhatt in his neon yellow sarees, redefining Indian traditional dress, and Mugler-esque metal torso gowns that sculpt the body like armor. But Gupta is far more than a designer for celebrities; he is a visionary who approaches fashion as a sculptural form, blending tailored precision with fluid movement. His recent show at Paris Couture Week marked a defining moment for Indian design on the global stage, proving that couture can be both philosophically grounded and rooted in cultural heritage. Through an amalgamation of posthumanist aesthetics, hybridized silhouettes, and Indian artisanal techniques, Gupta’s work is elevated to a form of sculpture, one not created to emphasise the wearer’s form, but to use the body as a moving canvas or structure to be activated and challenge binaries—between identity and abstraction, East and West, tradition and futurism.

*Look 2,* Gregoire Avenel/Courtesy of Gaur

Born in Delhi, Gupta has become a leading figure in the movement that blurs the boundaries between fashion, art, and sculpture. His style lies in the fusion of India’s rich craftsmanship with the Western forms of silhouette, a philosophy realized in full during his Paris Couture Week collection, Across The Flame. Inspired by a near-fatal incident Gupta and his partner experienced, the collection finds its heart in a journey of transformation - an out-of-body experience embraced through shared healing. Garments encased crystals as well as metal torso plates become armor, at once concealing and transfiguring the body. Where Look 2, for example, masks the model’s face in gold sequins, distorting the viewer’s perception of the wearer’s body, Look 7 brings attention to the model’s facial features through calligraphy and writing printed onto the face, neck and collar of a structured black gown. Gupta’s distinct futurist approach,where garments distort the wearer’s form and detailing melts into the skin, first took shape at Central Saint Martins, where he simultaneously explored Surrealism, fantasy, alongside Indian philosophical and cultural thought.

In his hands, couture becomes more than clothing: it is activated through movement to initiate a sculptural and provocative dialogue between the wearer and garment.

"For us, exploring haute couture as a layer within Indian culture is interesting, because they are now able to wear European or conceptual silhouettes, almost sculptures. That is the power of couture and cultural shift. It can make a generation of people evolve or devolve, or think differently."

Gupta’s hybrid, alienesque collections exist at the intersection of Surrealism, posthumanism, fantasy, and the Indian philosophy of shunya - the concept of zero. Rooted in the idea of the infinite, his designs push the boundaries of conventional beginnings and endings, instead favoring fluidity and mutating motion.

“There is no starting or ending point to any garment,” he explains. “It’s kind of fluid and very free-flowing.”

This philosophy is at the heart of Gupta’s practice - garments are not static objects but ever evolving, sculptural forms. His creations contour and distort the body, dissolving boundaries between fabric and skin.

*Look 7,* Gregoire Avenel/Courtesy of Gaur

For Gupta, couture is not only a form of adornment - it becomes a medium of self expression and a celebration of the human spirit. Yet the designer does not categorize himself as an Indian designer in a traditional sense, nor his collections as Indian clothing. Instead, his work draws deeply from India’s philosophical traditions while taking on hybrid silhouettes that transcend the East and West binaries.

“What is amazing about being from somewhere like India,” Gupta shares, “is that you are able to see the endlessness and vastness of the universe in a very absolute way.”

His creative process remains in flux: “Everything remains infinite, and everything is in loops.”

Gupta’s work transcends couture, changing garments into wearable forms of sculpture that distort the perception of the body, imbuing it with a posthumanist elegance. His practice is defined by sculptural, armor-like garments and the distinct use of Indian embroidery techniques to construct quasi-human forms. Gupta pushes the boundaries of couture while bridging India's rich textile heritage with the language of contemporary fashion.

The designer often employs Zardozi, Nakshi, and Dabka, intricate embroidery techniques from India that use metallic threads and coiled wires to create elaborate surfaces. Traditionally associated with ceremonial dress, these techniques take on new meaning in Gupta’s hands. Integrated into Western silhouettes like fluid drapery and corseted forms, they elevate Indian craftsmanship to the realm of haute couture, alongside revered European maisons such as the House of Lesage.

In Across the Flame, Gupta introduces new forms of Indian techniques into his practice, such as raffia, micro-pearls, and ghungroos (small metal bells worn during Indian dance) exploring their acoustic stimulation for the viewer.

*Look 30*, Gregoire Avenel/Courtesy of Gaur

This transformation of the body into a posthuman, otherworldly being is encapsulated in Look 30 of Across the Flame. The model, with hands facing outward in an act of surrender, appears to have morphed into something beyond the human form. Draped in black silk, the garment blends rigidity and flow - its structured bodice sculpting the torso before giving way to fluid fabric that traces the body’s shape. A high-cut slit reveals a leg marked in sheer tights. The corset contours into a conical silhouette that creates a half-seen, half-hidden mystery to the model. Crystals are studded around the arms, torso, and face, dissolving the boundary between body and embellishment. In this encasement, the wearer leaves behind their identity and becomes an abstracted figure. The garment is no longer a passive object to be worn; it becomes a figure in its own right, and the act of wearing becomes a form of metamorphosis.

Gaurav Gupta’s couture is not about adorning the body. Instead, it is an evolving landscape of ideas, and philosophies sculpted into form. Through quasi-human forms and philosophical questioning, he dissolves the boundary between body and garment. In his world, fashion is a living, breathing sculpture in motion and ever mutating.

Gaurav Gupta’s Living Sculptures Emulate Fashion as Architecture