Championing the act of play as creative tool of release and resistance, Kanika Goyal’s SS25 collection, Playfield, is a vibrant whirlwind of colourful graphics and organic textures. Born in Chandigarh, India, Kanika continually epitomises youthful spirit through design, with SS25 a final playground to heal and ignite the inner child. Big wrap-around sunglasses and cartoonish scribbles permeate the presentation, a place where fluidity and humour collide- each piece infused with the Hindu philosophy of Lila, in which play is a divine outcome rather than pursuit of purpose.

A collection daring us to revel in spontaneity, mistakes, and the wild imagination integrated in the authentic self, in a climate buzzing with pressure and anxiety. From the empty canvas of Carlton House, with silhouettes of the London Skyline carved out against the orange tiger-striped sky setting through the tall windows, KGL offered us all our own release. As the deeply personal work of South Indian artist April27 bathes the room, featuring the low prayers of his grandmother, Playfield stood as an ode to escapism, a sanctuary of the self in every liminal light.

Embellished with illustration, surface embroidery mimicking the eclectic doodles of our younger selves left unattended with a Crayola crayon, arousing the essence of spray-painted walls in garish hues that stand as a test of human expression and creativity. Observing a recurring theme of the unfinished and undone, SS25 saw Kanika experiment with incomplete zips in tailored shorts, softspoken blazers draped off the shoulders, embodying a protested sense of styling. Sheer asymmetric ombre bandeaus paired with distressed denim flaunting fluid drawings of loose floral motifs: garments already lived-in, already experienced, platforming the beauty in the process of living and playing. Laughing in the face of whoever ridiculed side-partings ‘cheugy’, KGL, teamed with hair stylist Diego Miranda, swooped lived-in locks across, nodding to the incompleteness of Playfield, models pacing with hair windswept from the adventures outside that reside at the heart of the collection.

Knitted micro-shorts and layered beaded embellishments burst forth in contrasting saturations of electric blues against pastel bubblegum pinks and lemon yellows, in a nostalgic colour palette reminiscent of the ice cream truck each summer. In signature Kanika Goyal design, SS25 boasted the return of big-buckles across oversized slouchy bags and high-rise sport socks, in an officewear-turned-streetwear aesthetic continuing to dominate the wider fashion landscape. With popped-up pinstripe collars and wide-leg trousers left a little too long, KGL’s latest venture shed a light on the beauty in the unrefined, in the dressing in your parents’ clothes desperate to make sense of the world around you, of leaving your primary coloured mark across the empty spaces along the way. To play is to live.

Words By: Abigail Scarlett
Images Courtesy of We Are Village