Workwear fashion has made strides today offering a variety of options in both men’s and women’s wear. While men are sporting classic suits, blazers paired with chinos, polo t-shirts with trousers for a smart casual look, turtlenecks, button-downshirts, and more — it’s the wide range of women’s wear options that takes one by surprise. Women are not just wearing muted tones in pantsuits but going allout and experimenting with bold colours.
The variety of options today in workwear for women did not exist in the 1990s. Liberalisation had just knocked on India’s doors enabling retail brands to come to India; workwear was just about to develop as a niche segment. Designer Anita Dongre saw an opportunity.
She wanted to cater to the aspirations of urban workingwomen and launched her contemporary western wear label, AND, in 1995. It is one of the first Indian designer labels to focus on affordable, ready-to-wear Western outfits, giving women choices beyond predominant ethnic wear formalslike saris, and three-piece kurta sets. Since then the label has evolved— it understands the psyche, body, comfort and the changing priorities ofthe modern working women.
As AND celebrates 25years, Dongre says that “25 years later, the core design ethos of the brand has stayed the same. We have continued to focus on creating classic outfits for her lifestyle in quality fabrics”. To mark its silver jubilee, the label has just dropped its new collection, ‘Studio AND’.
It offers a sl.