Designer Pranav Kirti Misra presented a new collection for his label HUEMN at Lakmé Fashion Week that blended iconography around beauty and terror without overt slogans, The Hindu reported ahead of the October 16, 2026 show in New Delhi. The designer, who had earlier released a T-shirt bearing the phrase “It’s done, bro” in response to NEET protests in July 2026, described the label as the rage against the machine of fashion whose sponsors accept its non-vanilla approach. An oxblood denim jacket featuring chikankari embroidery, a snakeskin print and a draped mummy top inspired by Egyptian mummies formed part of the lineup that built on the brand’s recurring motifs.
Misra, aged 42 and born in Lucknow, has long positioned HUEMN as a vehicle for social and political engagement rather than isolated aesthetics, according to a column published by Open Magazine in April 2026. The brand name, which deliberately evokes the word human, produces garments that function as layered texts questioning inherited frameworks about the body and resisting easy categorisation in a world drawn to binaries. Suvir Saran wrote in Open Magazine that these clothes gather stories, respond to movement and shift with the wearer’s mood, making them political without turning didactic.
The unisex nature of HUEMN garments represents a philosophical stance rooted in India’s pre-colonial sartorial history of fluid drapes, wraps and shawls that colonial frameworks later rigidified, Saran noted in the same assessment. Misra, trained at the National Institute of Fashion Technology, acts as much a writer as a designer whose work refuses to separate fashion from the surrounding social and political landscapes. This approach restores conversations about plurality that existed before external binaries interrupted them.
Industry reports published on October 17, 2026 indicate that online searches for unisex fashion keywords in India rose between 28 and 50 percent over the preceding year, reflecting growing demand among Gen Z consumers in both metros and Tier II cities. DFU Publications data shows particular increases in terms such as gender neutral hoodie and oversized shirt, categories well suited to the fluid silhouettes HUEMN and similar labels have popularised. Brands have responded with size-fluid collections that emphasise comfort, authenticity and cultural consciousness over traditional gendered divisions.
HUEMN’s evolving language has moved from oversized protective forms to structured tailoring in recent seasons while maintaining its core focus on contrast, emotion and rebellion, according to interviews the designer gave to Esquire India in 2025 and 2026. The current collection incorporates personal elements including the designer’s mother alongside broader socio-political reflections that mirror contemporary times. A man wearing these pieces would stand for women, their rights and their freedom to be who they are, Misra told the publication.
The presentation arrives as androgynous suiting and gender-fluid tailoring gain ground among Indian designers who treat the aesthetic as core to their language rather than a seasonal experiment, an Apparel Resources review from September 2026 found. Labels such as Bloni, Two Point Two and HUEMN have helped establish this direction at the designer level even as mass retail begins to follow with unisex capsules. The approach aligns with a broader Indian ethnic and fusion wear market projected to expand at double-digit rates in daily and versatile categories driven by younger consumers.
