At Lakmē Fashion Week 2026, Verandah by Anjali Patel Mehta, in collaboration with Lakmē Salon, presented Indigene – a curation rooted in ease, movement, and a distinctly modern idea of resortwear. With breezy kaftans, hand-painted prints, and a conscious approach to design, the showcase reinforced Verandah’s signature: clothing that feels as light as it looks. Actor Diana Penty closed the show, embodying the brand’s effortless, vacation-ready spirit.
We spoke to Anjali about bringing her collections Ammama and Bejewelled to life for the runway.
FL: Your collections, Ammama and Bejewelled, feel deeply personal and rooted in your grandmother’s legacy. How did her style and spirit inform the visual language of these collections?
APM: Both collections are deeply personal and rooted in my grandmother’s legacy. She was a free-spirited woman who lived life on her own terms, balancing a deep respect for tradition with a global outlook. She travelled extensively, and through her journeys, imbibed the best influences from both the East and the West. This shaped her love for heritage jewellery, flora, and cultural elements, many of which she collected and brought into her world.
She was also an incredible hostess, and the visual language of the collections draws from these elements: her home, her objects, and the motifs that defined her life, translated into prints and details as a tribute to her.
FL: Your prints reinterpret vintage jewellery and heirloom textiles. What was the process of translating these intimate references into contemporary surface design?
APM: The process begins with the object itself. We revisit and sketch it, sometimes from memory, sometimes through observation, and then reinterpret it through a modern lens using colour and context.
With textiles, the focus shifts to surface design. I begin with a colour palette and intuitively explore motifs, allowing them to evolve organically. Nature plays a strong role here. I often reinterpret florals alongside elements of earth and night to create contrast and depth. It’s a layered, instinctive approach to composition.
FL: The silhouettes across both lines feel fluid, layered, and effortlessly elegant. How did you approach designing pieces that balance occasionwear with the ease of resort dressing?
APM: Ease has always been central to both my design philosophy and personal style. I’m drawn to a more instinctive, playful way of dressing.
I like creating versatile pieces that can be mixed, matched, and styled freely; garments that transition seamlessly from day to night, or can be elevated through layering. Resortwear, for me, is a way of life. Growing up in Bombay, in a tropical climate close to the ocean, that sense of ease naturally informs how I design.
Comfort, fluidity, and how a garment feels against the skin are essential. It’s about slipping into something that feels effortless, yet still distinctive. At its core, Verandah is rooted in this feeling of ease, balanced with pieces that feel special and thoughtfully designed.
FL: You’ve positioned Verandah as a global resortwear label. How do you retain a strong connection to Indian craft while appealing to an international audience?
APM: The idea has always been to think global and act local. Having lived abroad, I saw Indian craftsmanship being celebrated worldwide, which made me question why more brands rooted in India did not yet design for a global audience. With Verandah, I wanted to build a brand grounded in Indian craft but relevant internationally. We work with some of the finest Indian textiles, incorporate hand embroidery, and collaborate closely with artisan communities like the Patwa community for macramé. We also develop certified sustainable fabrics with Indian mills.
Except our swimwear, everything we make is proudly Made in India with a strong focus on craftsmanship and detail. At the same time, our design language remains fluid and contemporary, allowing the collections to resonate across geographies. It’s about creating pieces that feel rooted, yet universally relevant.
FL: In what ways do Ammama and Bejewelled signal an evolution in Verandah’s design language going forward?
APM: These collections mark a deeper move into nostalgia-driven storytelling for me, with prints rooted in personal memory. Through design, I want to capture and preserve moments, objects, and inspirations, for eternity. Each motif carries meaning, even if it reads as simply beautiful at first glance. For me, it’s about wearing pieces that hold positive memories and a sense of permanence.
There’s a certain kind of honesty in clothes that comes from memory. What I mean is sometimes, the collections we simply register as beautiful at first glance begin somewhere far less visible. Not with a sketch or a silhouette, but with a feeling. Verandah’s Ammama and Bejewelled, showcased at Lakmē Fashion Week, echoed that kind of honesty.
For Anjali Patel Mehta, inspiration doesn’t arrive in isolation. It builds and gathers through travel, art, architecture, and a collage of sensory impressions, translating into prints that feel instinctive, layered, and quietly steeped in memory. And that’s precisely why these two collections felt more like a personal archive – of people, places, and everything in between.