Antar-Agni's Ujjawal Dubey is the revolutionary Indian fashion needs right now.

pHow to be a man these days" And how to explore and express that through dress" These are core themes that preoccupy Delhi-based menswear designer Ujjawal Dubey whose label, Antar-Agni (meaning andlsquo;the fire withinandrsquo;), has gained increasing attention since its launch in 2014 at Lakme's Gen Next platform. andldquo;Change is so beautiful. Iandrsquo;m interested in how the man can live the two extremes. The sensitive, the warrior; both extremes in all senses,andrdquo; says Dubey./p
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pWith his wife Saumya, Dubey works out of a studio in the capitalandrsquo;s industrial hub, Noida. Directly drawn in marker pen onto the windows behind their desk space, sketches of designs floating against the blue sky beyond hint at an intense creative process. On one wallandmdash;what the couple laughingly call Dubeyandrsquo;s andlsquo;scribblesandrsquo;andmdash;frames forming a collage of raw, visceral, disquieting energy. On the other side, quotes by Yohji Yamamoto sit next to still images of Quentin Tarantinoandrsquo;s Reservoir Dogs. These are all clues to the idea of dressing embodied in Dubeyandrsquo;s designs. A kind of cloaked Keanu Reeves in the Matrix warrior meets the traditional dress of India and Afghanistan, comprising layered jackets, kurtas, turbans, and loose-fitting pants./p pandnbsp;/p
pSoft-spoken Dubey grew up in Gorakhpur in eastern Uttar Pradesh, close to the bor...