Her work spans across Fine Art and Textile, exploring themes of identity, space and
memory. In her artistic approach, she critically examines colonial history as relates
to the practice of dress in India. Manchanda creates works that seem to exist in a
state of altered dimension and transparency, blurring the boundaries between
physical and psychological
She was recognized with the 2018 CFDA Geoffrey Beene
Scholarship Award and was a finalist for the 2019 Gucci Design Fellowship Program.
‘Practice of Dress' is a personal archive of clothing. Referencing silhouettes from Manchada’s
childhood, the collection studies the interplay between body, garment and the space we inhabit. Manchanda plays with dimensionality utilizing a pressing technique involving heat and starch. The garments shift from volume into x-ray like compressions, blurring the boundaries between form and function; between body and garment. Unable to fully inhabit the garments from within, the wearer is forced into a voyeuristic observation of the work. With the aim of preservation, stripped of their immediate functionality, each piece takes you into a world of compressed evocations underpinned by meticulous technique.
Key pieces include a relaxed suit in traditional Black Stewart with matching shirt and wool bomber. Icons are animated in rich tones of cobalt including a Melton peacoat and coordinating single breasted suit and elevated with supple leathers and suedes pieces including chore coats, fringe jackets and blazers.
The Maine inspiration re-enforces the brand’s already strong knitwear game with Nordic yoke sweaters in winter whites, oversized black and white fair isles and Teddy’s take on traditional Maine fisherman cabled sweaters in rich cashmeres with signature tones of cobalt and charcoal.
When styled and shot the collection nods to punk and the “buffalo movement” from the 90’s, circling back to Teddy’s immutable formula: American classics that capture modern American life; equally influenced by East and West Coast with strong synergies to European discernment.
