Giddy means “excited to the point of disorientation.” That is exactly how I felt looking at Quirk Box summer 2015 collection during Lakme Fashion Week in Mumbai. Giddy as a kiddo anticipating his first car ride, bus trip, train-plane-spaceship… In fact, these pop-up voyager scrapbook prints and patchwork garments conjured up within me visions of 1986 when my 7-year-old Soviet-boyhood Self received a special gift from auntie who visited GDR (East Germany)… That shiny comfy fun shirt remained my favorite until I grew out of it, but the thrill of fashion and travel grew into me. So Quirk Box managed to dress me in a happiest tactile memory from my childhood. Whoa.

1986, USSR

I wholeheartedly subscribe to the “wearable eccentricity” manifesto of designers Jayesh Sachdev and Rixi Bhatia who pulled together some award-winning artist cache and TEDx speaker viral cred to launch their globetrotter lifestyle brand. Their stuff looks insanely fun-tastic and instantly wishlist-able. The neon vintage airplanes zoom-zoom across blank and ruled white paper canvases of shirts and shorts. The squished up sightseeing must-sees prop up jackets and skirts. Yet somehow this doesn’t reek of around-the-world-in-eighty-days souvenir scavenger hunts for the colonial consumerists. F*ck off, Jules Verne. I’d rather take off with Quirk Box.

Check out my notes on more Indian designers at Lakme Fashion Week, including the fabulous Jatin Varma and Indo-Russian fusion by Neha Agarwal!