A New Handwriting where Craft & Embroideries Meet Modern Treatments & Silhouettes For Arjan Dugal, design is in his DNA. A Finance and Economics major with an avid love of Indian textiles and art forms, Arjan Dugal, son of the late former model & designer Simar Dugal, hails from a familial heritage of design dating back three generations. He is well-known for his eponymous menswear label since 2014.
In August 2021, Arjan took over as the Creative Head of the label Simar Dugal and spearheaded its first steps into couture fashion with a very successful bridal lehenga and alternative silhouette collection, amalgamating his modern touch with the classic evergreen “Simar Dugal” aesthetic of Indian craft & embroideries.
Arjan Dugal proudly unveils “Mahaaba” by Simar Dugal at Ensemble, Mumbai and at Simar Dugal studio in New Friends Colony, New Delhi. “Mahaaba” will also be the pride of the Simar Dugal flagship store opening soon at Emporio, New Delhi.
“Mahaaba” means love in Arabic, Romance in Swahili and can be translated to fifteen other languages all-encompassing the emotion of a beautiful romance!
“Each of our collection names is chosen with a lot of thought, to not only resonate with the label Simar Dugal but also as a reflection of our current emotion. Our F/W 2021 was named ‘Sahar’ which means a new dawn. That was actually the first complete collection which underwent the entire process from inception to execution after I took over as Creative Head of Simar Dugal”, says Arjan Dugal, Creative Head for Label Simar Dugal.
With Mahaaba, Arjan showcases a luxurious collection of kurtas, lehengas, saris and sharara sets in Indian fabrics, that spotlight a revival of ancient embroideries & craft forms like Gota, Naqshi, Dabka etc that can be worn by the women to signify the beauty of substance and self-confidence.
“With Mahaaba we express our extreme love for textiles and the art & crafts of India. It’s a fascination I inherited from my mother who was a collector of textiles, Kani and Jamawar shawls, Pichwais, Tankhas, and Suzanni blankets. Mahaaba is my homage to my mother and the treasured archives of textiles she collected”, adds Arjan.
New contemporary textures to enhance the delicate use of Gota in unique styles, unusual thread embroideries, Arjan’s love for maximalist colour, embellishments and surface techniques come to the forefront as his unique handwriting for the Simar Dugal label while always retaining the original essence of her aesthetic!
The Simar Dugal label is for those who express their individuality and strength, with compassion & love. A celebration of India, its love, its romance, and its vintage legacy, Mahaaba is for those special occasions, festivals and weddings where tasteful celebrations are a highlight.
Prior to taking the helm of my mother’s label I was solely a menswear designer. Arjan Dugal as a brand is classic but modern and eclectic. Simar Dugal is a vintage, artistic brand with an eternal appeal. There are unique learnings across both labels for me in terms of textile, silhouettes and aesthetics that excite me. As we unveil Mahaaba, I am also proud to launch the flagship Simar Dugal store at Emporio, New Delhi later this month as well as reveal a new menswear line from Arjan Dugal in October 2022”, concludes Arjan.
View “Mahaaba” by Simar Dugal @ Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/simardugal/?hl=en
About Arjan Dugal –
Simar Dugal, acclaimed as India’s first supermodel, broke stereotypes by walking the ramp after getting married and having a child. Her son was a regular attendee at runway shows and spent a good part of his childhood attending fashion shows and events. Simar Dugal’s eponymous fashion label, launched in 2004, has been a pure reflection of her personal taste and brings to the fore various Indian textiles and fabrics and is today well known for its use of organic fabrics, digital prints and gota and dabka embellishments.
Post her untimely demise, the label is now helmed by her son, Arjan Dugal who has an established menswear label under his own name. He carries forward and celebrates the memories and legacy of his mother through the Simar Dugal label which is now a true reflection of the duo’s relationship and design aesthetic. Today the Simar Dugal label is an amalgam of Simar and Arjan Dugal. It combines the old with the new – the ethereal palette with a new age edginess, the eternal silhouettes with newer, brighter embroideries and the elegant treatments of gota and dabka with younger silhouettes.
Arjan Dugal carries forward and celebrates the memories and legacy of his mother through the label Simar Dugal which is now a true reflection of the duo’s relationship and design aesthetic. Today the Simar Dugal label is an amalgam of Simar and Arjan Dugal. It combines the old with the new – the ethereal palette with a new age edginess, the eternal silhouettes with newer, brighter embroideries and the elegant treatments of gota and dabka with younger silhouettes.
Prior to taking the helm of his mother’s label, Arjan was solely a menswear designer under his own name, Arjan Dugal. Launched in 2014, Arjan Dugal is a modern menswear label with a fresh take on Indian menswear. He started his career as his mom’s stock room boy, on a salary of $100 a month. He learned the ropes from a very young age from patterns to stitching, to cutting to how to do embroidery and colour balancing. Over a period of time, Arjan worked his way up, step by step and then started his own menswear label.
As time moved on and situations changed Arjan rapidly adapted to the changing pace of the fashion industry. He took over the managing side of the business in 2018. Once he streamlined this process, he gradually moved on to design and slowly moved into the design elements such as colours, cuts and patterns.
In aesthetic, and in an effort to remove or redefine the term ‘ethnic’, Arjan has taken a new approach with classical Indian treatments, fabrics and silhouettes and adapted them to the modern style-conscious man. Arjan Dugal as a brand is classic but modern and eclectic. Simar Dugal is a vintage, artistic brand with an eternal appeal. Each collection from Simar Dugal has taught Arjan to delve into the very depths of each collection and its fabrics and treatments before even starting his label and each collection is starkly different from the last. With eclectic prints, Pin-tucks, embroideries and fabric manipulation, the label has grown across spectrums. One can come and find something for everyone!
