Paris looks east, with restraint
PARIS / NEW DELHI - In a season where menswear has often oscillated between utilitarian severity and nostalgic polish, two of Paris's most exacting houses offered a quieter proposition: India, interpreted through cut. At Dries Van Noten and Lemaire, the bandhgala and the dhoti drape emerged not as decorative references but as structural ideas, informing jackets, trousers and layered ensembles with a precision that felt both scholarly and contemporary.
The result was less an act of borrowing than of translation. In both collections, the Indian garments' essential strengths - the bandhgala's closed, upright formality and the dhoti's wrapped, sculptural movement - were recast for a Parisian wardrobe attuned to modern luxury's preference for ease, modularity and subtle distinction.
"What feels compelling now is not surface exoticism, but silhouette intelligence," said Paris-based curator and menswear consultant Arjun Malhotra. "The bandhgala and dhoti are not trends; they are enduring design systems."
Dries Van Noten: ceremonial structure, softened
At Dries Van Noten, the references were threaded through a collection that prized tactility and controlled drama. Jackets appeared with a bandhgala-like stance: upright collars, clean fronts and a sense of contained grandeur, but loosened through fabric choice and proportion. Rather than rigid tailoring, the house leaned into fluid wool, brushed silk blends and matte jacquards that allowed the garment to hold its shape without losing movement.
Several looks suggested the bandhgala without reproducing it literally. High-necked jackets were cut with a slightly elongated torso, their closures concealed to preserve a monastic line. In some iterations, the shoulders were softened and the waist suppressed only minimally, creating a columnar profile that read as aristocratic rather than ceremonial. The house's known affection for print and texture remained present, but here it was restrained: tonal embroideries, shadow florals and faint metallic threads that caught the light like the edge of a brocade sherwani viewed from a distance.
The dhoti influence appeared in the lower half of the silhouette. Trousers were wrapped, folded and panelled to suggest the layered geometry of the garment while remaining fully tailored. One series of looks paired the sculpted jackets with voluminous, tapered bottoms that folded inward at the knee, creating a graceful break and a sense of movement at the ankle. The effect was especially striking in neutral shades - ivory, tobacco, ink and deep maroon - where the architecture of the drape became the primary ornament.
Lemaire: the dhoti as modern utility
If Dries Van Noten treated Indian references with ceremonial lyricism, Lemaire approached them with its characteristic urban rationality. The Paris house's collection translated the dhoti's wrapped construction into garments that felt pragmatic, intelligent and deeply contemporary. Here, the drape was not theatrical but functional, used to create airflow, ease and adaptability in silhouettes built for a global city wardrobe.
Lemaire's jackets retained the house's signature softness: unpadded shoulders, relaxed lapels and a quiet authority in the finish. Yet several pieces introduced a bandhgala-like closure or stand collar, lending the garments a disciplined verticality. The effect was especially effective when paired with wide, pleated trousers that folded across the front and cinched at the waist, evoking the logic of wrapped cloth without literal citation.
The fabric story was central. Crisp cotton poplin, lightweight wool gabardine and fluid technical blends gave the collection a polished but breathable hand. In darker tones - charcoal, espresso, slate and bottle green - the garments suggested the understated formality of Indian menswear while remaining resolutely Parisian in temperament. Lemaire's strength lay in its refusal to overstate the reference: the Indian influence registered through proportion, closure and movement, not through embellishment.
"The most successful cross-cultural design today is often the least declarative," noted New Delhi-based fashion historian Nandini Rao. "When a bandhgala or dhoti enters a European runway with intelligence, it expands the vocabulary of menswear rather than flattening it."
A broader market reading
The significance of these references extends beyond aesthetics. In luxury menswear, where consumers increasingly seek garments that communicate discernment rather than logos, the bandhgala and dhoti offer a persuasive alternative to standard Western tailoring. They carry formality without stiffness, ceremony without excess, and a built-in sense of occasion that resonates across markets from Paris to New Delhi, Dubai and Singapore.
For Indian luxury consumers in particular, such references are likely to be read with heightened sensitivity. The bandhgala, long associated with statecraft, weddings and elite social ritual, and the dhoti, with its deep regional and cultural associations, are not generic motifs. Their appearance on Paris runways underscores the growing visibility of South Asian dress codes in global fashion, but also the need for precision and respect in how they are adapted.
The collections by Dries Van Noten and Lemaire suggest that the most durable influence of Indian menswear on Europe may lie in silhouette rather than symbolism. In a season searching for coherence, the bandhgala's discipline and the dhoti's drape offered exactly that: a vocabulary of elegance that feels rooted, modern and commercially resonant.