Supriya Lele Official Website: [ www.vogue.co.uk/brand/supriya-lele ] . Supriya Lele grew up in a nontraditional, British-Asian household. Her family moved from India to England before she was born, and her mother had a large collection of saris that she kept and wore for special occasions and family gatherings. Lele has only worn a sari “a handful of times” in her life. She was a punk goth raised in the West Midlands who always had a deep love for fashion and an innate creative drive, one that was informed by her love of music and skate culture. Even so, Lele would visit India fairly often with her parents, and because she was used to seeing her mother dress in a European style day-to-day, she remembers “being quite fascinated by watching my aunties and grandmother putting their saris on.” She adds, “It was such an unusual way to clothe yourself, but it seemed very natural. They do it very effortlessly.” Working on her MA at The Royal College of Art a few years ago, Lele realized that the way she drapes her clothes “had been influenced by the process of draping the sari and the relationships between the women in my family through this activity.” This technique and other slight nods to her British-Asian family could be seen in her Fall 2018 collection, which she presented as part of the Fashion East show at London Fashion Week.

The clothes are a ripe mash-up of her various fashion phases as a teenager in the ’90s—minimal, sheer tops and low-slung trousers—and sari-esque draping. Lele used a traditional Indian fabric on sporty sleeves, pants, and blouses, as well as a neon version of the traditional Madras check. “I don’t always directly reference Indian garments,” she notes. “I like to blur the lines between the two cultures through draping, wrapping, twisting, and subversion.” Though she has come to understand more about the style of her ancestors and immediate family and how they’ve unintentionally played a role in her design aesthetic, Lele still doesn’t often wear saris or other traditional Indian dress. “I believe that’s where the duality of my two cultures comes into play,” she says. “I am of Indian heritage and I am also British. I want to create a modern feminine dialogue between two cultures which focuses on the female body and has an openness and lightness within it.”

Here, the designer shares some of her most treasured images of the women in her family, alongside a few key looks from her standout Fall 2018 collection.