Fashion / Nazranaa Unveils “Samskriti” Timeless Wearable Art At NYFW For SS26

Nazranaa Unveils “Samskriti” Timeless Wearable Art At NYFW For SS26

Fashion Sep 18, 2025

by Team ANOKHI LIFE

Nazranaa unveiled its SS26 collection “Samskriti” at NYFW, transforming the runway into a celebration of India’s forgotten art, literature, and philosophy through couture as timeless wearable art.

See the runway photos at the end of this article.

Couture As Cultural Storytelling

At New York City’s Glasshouse, on the evening of September 11th, 2025, couture was not simply worn – it was experienced as cultural storytelling. Nazranaa, the global leader in Indian fashion and bridalwear founded by sister–brother duo Shivangi Gupta Singh and Shashank Gupta, unveiled its Spring/Summer 2026 collection Samskriti in a show that transformed runway spectacle into a celebration of India’s intellectual and spiritual heritage.

The word Samskriti — meaning “culture” in Sanskrit — encapsulates the collection’s essence: a rediscovery of forgotten Indian art forms, literary achievements, and philosophical brilliance. In an era where luxury fashion often privileges aesthetic over meaning, Nazranaa dared to ask: What if couture could also be a vessel of memory, identity, and reverence?

Sacred Texts Reimagined As Couture

Drawing inspiration from Surya Pandita’s Shri Ramakrishna Vilomakavyam — a 15th-century palindromic Sanskrit poem that tells the Rāmāyaṇa when read one way and Krishna’s life when read the other — the designers used couture as a canvas for cultural genius. Shashank Gupta shared how the brilliance of this work resonated with him:

“As a child, I remember being mesmerized by ambigrams in Angels & Demons. Years later, I stumbled upon the 15th-century Sanskrit palindromic poem, which tells the story of the Rāmāyaṇa when read from left to right and Kṛṣṇa’s life when read from right to left. I was baffled by its brilliance, and I knew I wanted to use my love language—fashion—to shine light on such forgotten treasures of our culture. Samskriti is our humble effort to give credit to works of art like this and to honor our ancestors through couture.” – Nazranaa co-founder Shashank Gupta

This vision came alive in 18 ensembles where lehengas and sherwanis were reimagined as living manuscripts.

The showstopper lehenga paid homage to Maharishi Valmiki’s weaving of the Gayatri Mantra into the Ramayana. With 24 panels — each beginning with a mantra syllable and hand-painted with verses and stories from the epic — the garment transcended fashion to become a wearable scripture. Its dupatta, depicting Valmiki in the act of writing, sealed the design as both artifact and art.

Reclaiming Heritage On The NYFW Stage

For the South Asian diaspora, Samskriti is more than couture — it is reclamation. Too often, Indian philosophical and literary genius has been sidelined in global narratives. By bringing these stories to the heart of New York’s fashion stage, Nazranaa is not only redefining bridalwear but also asserting India’s intellectual legacy as a force within contemporary culture.

In bridging heritage and high fashion, Nazranaa reminds us that couture can be both aesthetic indulgence and cultural activism — a reminder that South Asian creativity, rooted in centuries of brilliance, deserves not only to be remembered but revered.

Nazranaa’s Samskriti collection is now available at nazranaanj.com