Rediscovering youth: Dhruv Kapoor's Spring '25 collection celebrates nostalgic inspirations

Dhruv Kapoor's Spring '25 collection takes us on a nostalgic journey to a time when plush toys brought comfort and fictional stories shaped our dreams and helped us define our future aspirations. Presented at Milan Fashion Week on June 17, the collection reflects childhood inspirations that propel us forward, free from fear and social conditioning. It highlights the underlying truths in fictional concepts: unfiltered, unbiased and full of joy. In a candid conversation, Kapoor shares the vision behind this enchanting collection.

Question 1: What is the inspiration behind the new collection?

Answer 1: Spring' 25 traces a person's journey from childhood to adulthood. The play between then and now is enhanced by charming images of giants and little ones; raw and tailored; sophisticated and resilient, all against the backdrop of a nostalgic romance. The result is a balanced collection where childhood rebellion evolves into a mature understanding of ourselves and the world around us.

Question 2: How have you balanced the playful and childlike aspects with modern fashion trends?

Answer: Mainly revising and reimagining memories for the new world. The collection plays like a conversation between multiple versions of ourselves: past, present and future. We have planted multiple triggers in the collection that would produce a mix of memories, from the color combinations, the strange combinations, and the red bunny that defines the love we share with our plushies. My favorite part was reinventing the scrapbooks into new stories as designed prints in a variety of pieces.

Question 3: Can you describe the creative process behind the development of this collection?

Answer: Spring' 25 explores a contemporary world made up of memories, oscillating between adolescence and future states. My team and I played with a list of memories (mostly from the '90s) reimagining them under an evolved lens, fusing childhood impulse with our current mature understanding of ourselves and the world around us. The design process digitized hand-drawn doodles and graphics into refined prints and embroideries where elements of duality emerge through materials, colors and shapes. A message to emphasize that we are constantly building ourselves by borrowing from the past to optimistically immerse ourselves in the future as the best version of ourselves.

Question 4: How did you approach the challenge of combining nostalgia with contemporary fashion?

Answer: It is always exciting to discover that point of union between two polar concepts. The current offering explores the meeting point between memories of the past and the future, then versus now: how we would remake things from our past with our current evolved state of mind. When you think about it, the options are countless and some are simply magical. The idea behind it was to restyle past memories to our future versions.