One Original Thing...

It’s all about that one little thing.

The other day a girl uttered this to a friend while shopping the designers at debut. Her phrase seemed at once a justification, an explanation and a call to arms to keep on looking. “That’s it,” we thought! That’s what makes girls tick. Often there is no reason to buy; nothing is so new that it can be pronounced essential. But if a design has that “one little thing”, it’s a done deal.

Take Akshata for example. The collection was founded in 2010 by Akshata Murty to preserve the ancient crafts and inherited techniques of India’s artisans. Akshata is a collective of sorts, gathering fabrics and accessories prepared in India by local experts, and merging the work with a New York-based design team. Production is split between New York and New Delhi, offering balance and opportunity in the process.

Modernity in this case is a good thing, and introduces unique processes and hand-finishing to simply pretty, wearable clothing. The pieces have at once a far away quality and beautiful finish to them, and will invoke many a “where did you find that?” query. Pale, sweet pink silk, Mediterranean blue beading and gold metallic underskirts conjure long summer days during which you don one dress in the morning, and don’t change until the last drop of rose at night’s end.