Flash of Fashion

Looking Up With
         _______SUJATA ASSOMULL

The LAKME India Fashion Week came to a close, and even now, nearly a month later, the controversies continue. While people talk of who did what and where, fashion — the reason for the Week — has literally taken a backseat.
With 32 designers showing their collections, the range of designs displayed were many. There were some which were just all right, and some, which looked like they were half-complete. However, what is for sure is that our designers are great when it comes to Indian and Indo-West designs. But they get unimaginative with western wear. It was almost as if some of the designers had spent a couple of weeks watching FTV and browsing through foreign issues of ELLE and Vogue. And then just copied what they had seen.

The night before the LIFW’s grand finale, there was a gala showing where each of the 32 designers showed three of their outfits. This was really the show to see, and it was only after this show that one was able to compare the work of different designers. And at the same time, check out the trends for this autumn.
There were five trends that stood out. They all seem to have one thing in common; they were funky and made a statement. Looks like the days of minimalism are over. It’s time to be bold about what you wear, and make sure that everyone notices you.

INDIAN KITSCH: COLOUR and mixing of prints was really hot. From Ritu Kumar to J. J. Valaya, most of the designers played with the traditional salwar kameez, cropping pants and shortening kurtas. While Vijay and Shobhana Aurora took things a step further by mixing polka dots with outlandish prints.

PURE WHITE: Neutral white remained a firm favourite. Rajesh Pratap Singh had some white shift dresses with sequins, Rohit Bal collection for men was mainly in white, Manuviraj Khosla had a collection of white tracksuits for men and white cropped trousers for women.

BLACK AND RED: CALCUTTA’S Kiran Uttam Ghosh showed a pair of black trousers with a red-cropped top. Sounds simple but the colour combination was so striking that it worked. In fact, red was also a popular colour for the lips. For both Gitanjali Kashyap’s and Aki Narula’s show all the models’ lips were painted pillar-box red. An effect which added instant glamour to the shows.

ANIMAL PRINTS: YES, those animal prints are back with a bang. Especially popular are zebra prints. Both Gitanjali and Aparna Chandra mixed black and white animal prints with a touch of shocking pink. And Malini Ramani took things a step further by making a tiger print-inspired gold sequinned top and Rohit Gandhi and Rahul Khanna even showed a zebra print coat.

LEATHER AND DENIM: THOUGH some designers did use soft fabrics like crepe and silk, fabrics like leather and denim seemed to making a strong comeback. Rohit Bal mixed white leather with fur, which made for some really funky men’s attire. Denim was a firm favourite with designers like Malini, Monisha Bajaj and Rana Gill.

(The writer is Features Editor, Elle)

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