A much needed space for progressive fashion

Last weekend saw a whole lot of Gen Zs find their way towards Mumbai’s Jio Convention Centre. The eye catcher was All You Can Street (AYCS 2024) with its impressive lineup of over 50 participating brands, with a notable emphasis on homegrown talent. Participating brands included Indian street wear brands such as Almost Gods, Juhu Beach Studio, Lab 88, Stamp Duty, and more.

Promoted by young 22 – 24 year old Abhishek Gandhi and Yash Shetty, AYCS was a platform to showcase the talent of other young entrepreneurs. This year’s highlights at the third edition of AYCS was the curation. The event had 50 of the best homegrown fashion brands participating speard across the Sustainable Street for the sustainable brands, Beauty on the Street for skin care and beauty brands, and All You Can Flea, a flea area. Today, AYCS has grown to become a large progressive fashion platform.

AYCS is the brain child of friends Abhishek Gandhi and Yash Shetty and their common love for sneakers. Gandhi’s interest in sneakers peaked when he was 19 years old (he is 22 today), when he played basketball. “Basketball sneakers go so well with everything – fashion, music, all of that. I’m playing this sport, and I know this is the music I can listen, these are the brands that the athletes wear, and stuff like that. With a sport like basketball, all of this came together for me to pick and choose,” says Abhishek Gandhi, founder, All you Can Street (AYCS). “So it came to me very naturally and I got into fashion from a street wear perspective,” he adds. What also got Gandhi’s interest was what designer Virgil Abloh did with his brand Off White which blew up in 2017. At the age of 16 years, he found it interesting how the entire concept was designed. 

Gandhi’s first job in 2021 was creating content at Free Society based around sneakers, jeans and hype clothes that the young Gen Zs are into now. (Free Society is India’s first globally curated multi-brand streetwear, sneaker and vintage store.) While working at Free Society, Gandhi launched his brand the AB Hoodies with a homegrown brand called Warping Theories. The sale of 100 odd hoodies encouraged him to have a pop-up sale in a 250 sq. ft. store in Bandra. “About 200 people come down on a Friday afternoon / evening. And I thought that this would be cool if we did this over three days,” says Gandhi. The idea was to do a B2C event on a larger scale with a concert-ish vibe, and combine fashion, art and music as a cultural festival on homegrown fashion, music, art. The first AYCS  in 2021 had 9 - 11 brands including Warping Theories, No Grey Area, The Naag, Blue Brew, Kalakarni, to name a few.

Streetwear started off in India in 2019. Today India has already carved out a spot for itself in street wear in the oversized t-shirts and cargos categories. “People have really opened up their eyes, and minds to this kind of dressing, this kind of fashion,” says Gandhi. “The whole western influence and their implementation of different aspects of fashion there has made it a lot easier for India to accept it and work with. They know that street wear is getting featured, and that it is oversized t-shirts and pants, but it could be more. They don’t know what that more is, so that is what we are there for,” he adds."