Akshat Bansal, winner of the fourth edition of “NEXA presents The Spotlight,” talks about how he got started exploring future-forward textiles, what it was like to work with Tarun Tahiliani, and what Savile Row taught him in his first interview with Vogue.
A seal of approval from the illustrious fashion school Central Saint Martins and the highly skilled streets of Savile Row will undoubtedly secure a seat in the elite echelons for a designer looking to make a name for themselves among the top tier of fashion’s big brands in a matter of five years. But for the fourth-place finisher of “NEXA presents The Spotlight,” the trip began before Akshat Bansal, the inventor of Bloni, learned how to properly treat buttons on the right and left, sew side seams, and create patterns.
It’s a nice contrast that Bansal, who has a background in traditional savoir-faire from his apprenticeship on Savile Row in London and even before that from the master ateliers of couture master Tarun Tahiliani, has established a smart streetwear persona with Bloni, complete with reflective gear and tactile textiles, an overall edgy and deconstructed brand language. Bansal describes his situation as “learning how to walk before I run.” Nevertheless, his brand is futuristic.
The son of a successful sari business owner from Hisar, Bansal decided to pursue design at NIFT to demonstrate his mettle before making his fashion debut with Bloni. From there, he planned to assist Tarun Tahiliani’s framework for heritage revival. “I enjoy being forced into unfamiliar situations with new challenges, and I really put pressure on myself to raise the bar and achieve my own objectives. In order to navigate a brighter future, it helps to be aware of who you already are, says Bansal, so he wanted to gain that exposure while shedding my small-town kid persona.
When Bansal founded Bloni in 2017, he was one of the pioneers in introducing experimental textiles like marine plastic and entered the market as a gender-neutral label long before it was a woke concept for brands and designers. Bloni is derived from combining his pet name and the first letter of his last name. It was the sum of all his varied and wildly dissimilar design-related experiences—he had learned about abstraction while at CSM and the exacting description of tailoring at Savile Row.There, I came to the realization that I might be the only person in the world who could sew you a pocket better than I could.
His cyber-friendly, futuristic trench coats, chain mail variations, and pants are unmistakably a reflection of his skills. Savile Row waistbands will be on the reflective pants, and the arm holes on the blazers will be correctly sized. The more Bansal focuses on using materials that don’t obstruct his vision but assist his experimentation with fabrics that maintain a feeling of usefulness, the more abstract and provocative the designs become. In other words, no matter how radical the designs, the wearability is still crucial.
