The Birla Cellulose autumn/winter 2019/20 collection – to be showcased at Première Vision Paris on 19-21 September – has built on customer feedback received from the Indian company’s collection released last year.
A world-leading cellulose fibres manufacturer, and part of the Aditya Birla Group, Birla Cellulose has placed the emphasis of its new range on muted elegance. The designs are subtle, the play of textures is soft, and the colour palette is infused with warm autumnal hues.
“As we stand at the threshold of a new decade, the focus is on envisioning the future with the benefit of hindsight and present insights,” says Nelson Jaffery, Aditya Birla general manager designs and collections.
He adds that this season’s collection is led by ‘inspiration, instigation and innovation.’
The focus is on sustainability and living better rather than bigger; on craft influencing technology – rather than the other way around; and products that have a timeless quality rather than today’s all too common use-and-throw culture.
Another key aspect of the collection is cross usage: traditional checks and stripes find a way to be present in casualwear; and sportswear fabric finds an expression in trendy workwear.
Mid-tones evolve in the collection, infusing winter garments with medium coloured hues.
The collection’s design is minimalistic – the emphasis is on cleaner, no-fuzz fabrics with a rich hand feel and visual appeal. Motifs from nature have been adopted but with imaginative twists.
The design team at the Aditya Birla Group has developed the collection with three distinct themes: Timeless Tales; Moonlit Mystique; and Unboxed.
While Timeless Tales returns to the old-world charm of the era gone by, Moonlit Mystique dwells on the journey to uncover the mysteries of the unknown. Away from these two themes is Unboxed, a collection that celebrates the radical irrepressible spirit of youth that refuses to be placed in a slot.
In Timeless Tales, classic textiles and designs contain interesting twists to give their traditional patterns a smart retro look. Fabrics are elevated with an intelligent infusion of design and colours. Renewed classics are developed, with hatched patterns worked into viscose jerseys, while distorted optical effects and micro structures are added in both knits and wovens to add visual interest to core fabrics.
Basic checks are combined with interesting herringbone weaves to give textural interest. Variations in scales of houndstooth patterns are used to create visual drama. Colour nep is added to classic stripes to create interest in simplicity. Viscose with metallic inclusions and blends of viscose, modal and wool have been used to keep the soft hand feel of the fabric. Heather marl, mélange twists and neppy yarns are worked in neutral tones in woven chambrays and knit staples. The emphasis is on comfort, softness and lightness while adding luxury to leisure.
Jersey fabrics carry over the basic casual aesthetics from the previous season, where the traditional tweed look was (and remains) important with blends of harmonious natural tones.
The second theme of the collection, Moonlit Mystique, “taps into the mystical and the unexplainable, evoking sensorial decadent moods and the unexpected ephemeral beauty of the unexplored,” says Jaffery.
Midnight hues, shimmering night skies and the beauty of wilderness and decay have inspired this story in the collection. Ideal for women’s evening wear, the collection has variegated stripes, shimmers and space-dyed coloured metallic yarns in jersey. Surfaces are updated with copper and bronze metallic yarns for visual impact and a rich sophisticated look.
Fabrics in this story lend a sensual feel and drape to the collection. Muted fabrications with undulating stripe patterns, broken pin stripes and dark tonal textures make for ideal material to fashion casual shirting, separates and jacket apparels.
Repeats of small and medium-scale design elements in a palette of olive green, grey and black work well for sartorial looks in smooth viscose blend jacquards. Designs take on a lively feel, creating a dynamic sense of movement.
The Unboxed collection focuses on pick and remix, fused with radical design thinking. Inspired by the growing trend of ‘multi-racial past evolving into an ambi-culture,’ Jaffery says the design reflects how in future, “people will move seamlessly between cultures and embrace and celebrate flaws with style.”
Upbeat colours and motifs combined with overprints in shirting fabrics are seen in this collection, with non-defined geometric circles, broken linear compositions and distorted patterns portraying individuality and uniqueness that define youth. This story is aimed at a generation which does not want to be stereotyped, whose members seize every opportunity to break free.
Denim, the all-time favourite fabric of youth, features in this collection, but with an alternative twist – using knit denim fabrics. For autumn/winter 2019/20, Birla knit-denim incorporates an authentic washed surface, ideal for shirts, sweaters and jogger-jean separates. Washed down effects are designed to ensure authentic denim looks drive the market. Dark-indigo hues in textured pin stripes add a textural high-contrast effect.
With its quest to ‘inspire, instigate and innovate,’ this Birla Cellulose collection is designed to take manufacturers and consumers on a sartorial journey envisioning the future through creatively constructed designs.
- Birla Cellulose will exhibit at Première Vision Paris on 19-21 September, at booth 6C53
