There is something almost monastic about the designs of P.E.L.L.A — the Bengaluru-based sustainable clothing label by Darjeeling-born designer Priyanka Ella Lorena Lama. Trained at the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Bengaluru, Lama represents a new generation of Indian designers who approach fashion as inquiry. At 23, she was launched as a Gen Next designer at Lakmé Fashion Week in 2015, and even then, her work carried an unusual poise: draped, fluid, and deeply conscious of the land it emerged from. A decade later, her cuts have only grown sharper.
Lama, recognised as a designer of singular talent early in her career, was honoured at Hindustan Unilever’s Green Wardrobe Week alongside trailblazers like Anita Dongre and Pero. By 26, she had represented India at the International Fashion Showcase during London Fashion Week, where the Indian team received the ‘Country Award’, and was included in Forbes India’s 30 Under 30 list for fashion. In 2021, with her return to LFW, the designer’s journey came full circle. P.E.L.L.A won ‘The Spotlight’, a joint initiative by LFW and Nexa Experience that awards the winning designer with a sponsorship to shoot and create a fashion film.
Lama’s approach is founded on the idea that fashion can thrive without waste, ego, or excess. Her label, P.E.L.L.A, is built on the principle of zero-waste pattern making. Each hand-stitched, hand-rolled, and blind-hemmed piece is cut from a single block of fabric, avoiding leftover scraps and encouraging multiple lives for the same garment. The silhouettes — often monochromatic, fluid, and sculptural — carry a timelessness that defies mainstream fashion’s seasonal obsolescence. Lama’s designs challenge the idea that clothing must expire with trends.
Her collection, 'The Hive', extends this philosophy into a meditation on impermanence. “Where nature dances and swarms on air,” Lama writes in her concept note for the collection, “beauty exists in each end for a new beginning.” Through hues of eggshell, beige, and cream, The Hive evokes the stillness before metamorphosis — the moment where decay and renewal become indistinguishable. Crafted from handwoven silks and Pashminas sourced from Indian clusters, and detailed with hand-painted silk and thread work, the collection blurs the line between material and memory.
The Hive goes beyond aesthetics to make a social statement. In Lama’s universe, fashion is intertwined with ecology and ethics. Her use of indigenous textiles and rejection of industrial sewing serve as acts of resistance to the rapid, detached nature of global fashion. While the industry faces ethical and excess concerns, P.E.L.L.A presents a vision of an alternative future — one that discovers beauty through awareness rather than abundance.
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