When the clocks melted on Day 4 of FDCI Lakmé Fashion Week, Péro’s fall-winter trousseau of 2023 knocked over quite a few tea cups with their Mad Hatter spin on the cottagecore aesthetic. Although this homegrown sustainable brand has never shied away from patterns in the dozen or so years of its existence, couturier Aneeth Arora punctuated their statement checks and florals with knitted pompoms and art deco medallions from the 1930s for this year's Cuckoo & Co collection. The design team has also revived West Asian mixed fabrics such as mashru while working in close rapport with new weaving clusters from Kullu, Himachal Pradesh to introduce a cultural backstory to their fuzzy jackets and striped shirts.

Péro has amassed more than 200 physical stores across 35 countries since it was first conceived as a maximalist, tactile exploration back in 2009. Known for their upcycling initiatives and embroidery-heavy resuscitation of androgynous silhouettes, this label has always put mixed-media experimentation and sustainability at the forefront of their fabric philosophy. But what adds a decadent finish to the statement pieces has always been the curiously ornate embellishments, manifesting in their latest showcase as appliqué motifs and psychedelic patchwork.

From hand crocheted felt hats by Grevi to reinvented campus shoes by PèPè, there was a cheeky irreverence palpable in the air as the models lollygagged on the runway defying social mores of the gender binary. This is the first time that Péro has launched a menswear presentation while flipping the playbook completely, dinner party neckties and stumpwork socks by ANT45 reigning eccentric through the sartorial vocabulary.

Whether it be their 3-D print dresses or pinstriped cordsets, a standout feature of the ensembles is how gloriously and incoherently the pattern-on-pattern overlays intersect with vibrant bursts of colour seemingly held in check only by intermittent navy blues and greys. The early 1900s flapperism transitioning into Coco Chanel surrealism of the Roaring Twenties underlies this ditsy rendition that Péro has envisioned. For the misfits and oddballs out there, the Cuckoo & Co collection embodies the free-flowing spirit of the era expressing itself through the story of fashion.

Explore their latest collection here.

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