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Magazine
CATWALK
Showcasing gen next
RONITA TORCATO
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Besides the usual spectacle, this year’s Lakme Fashion Week, Autumn 2008, was the debut platform for eight new young designers.
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Photo: SHASHI ASHIWAL
Earthy tones: Colours for the fall at LFW.
For an Autumn-Fall show, the just concluded Lakme Fashion Week had precious few garments suiting the season which calls for warmth in apparel. But then, notwithstanding the winter snows of Gulmarg, or the chill of Delhi, an Indian winter, for the most part, is the equivalent of a German spring. And so it was, that fashionistas, journos and trade reps congregating over five days at Mumbai’s sole opera hall applauded delicate ensembles crafted from chiffons, georgettes, silks, and cottons. Sabyasachi Mukherjee, a perennial favourite with a certain hard-to-please gentleman named Albert Morris from the small but reputed Brown’s in the U.K., presented grungy styles in autumnal colours — by which we mean earthy tones — worn by models in large spectacles and curly wigs.
Interestingly, the (few) foreign buyers and fashion press present at LFW felt Indian designers suffered from a split persona, since the couture privileged an East-West melange. I’m inclined to put a more positive construction; I think we have the best of both worlds. But then, I’m not a fashionista.
Celebs galore
An interesting facet of fashion fests worldwide is the showstopper. What used to be the grand finale (or showstopper as it is known these days) was the bridal dress. At the LFW, the wearer of the final costume was just as important, if not more, than the garb itself. As it came to pass, each designer (unconsciously) upstaged the other with his/ her choice. Marc Robinson orchestrated the model line up which sashayed down the ramp. From yesteryear’s top star, Sridevi, newbie Ranbir of the Kapoor clan, model-actors Kelly Dorji and Bikram Saluja and top model Yana Gupta to Sabya’s sister, Abhishek Datta’s 14-month-old baby son Aaryansh on the ramp to Padma Lakshmi, Madhu Sapre, Kareena Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan, Neetu Singh and Deepika Padukone, there were celebs galore. This season’s Lakme Designer Rodricks outdid himself by opening his show with top model and former beauty queen Jaese Randhawa languidly descending down from the ceiling on a trapeze. He closed his show with Jaese clad in a spectacular silver ensemble, with the skirt resembling a ship.
So much for spectacle. This year’s LFW, as in previous years, offered a great platform to newbies who will hopefully mature into the new stars in India’s fashion firmament. Eight Gen Next designers scored with their creations, inspired by their vision of a pollution free world.
Clearly, they seemed to be inspired by this year’s World Health Day theme which focuses on the need to safeguard health from the adverse effects of climate change. The business of style seminar saw some interesting interactions between foreign buyers and the Indian designers. Designers Mukherjee and Rodricks shared their experiences of exhibiting and selling in the West; both felt it was necessary to first establish business in India and then proceed abroad.
Delhi based J.J. Valaya opened the Week with red, brown and cream togs inspired by currency from around the world. There were cribbing in certain quarters that the collection had premiered at the Delhi Fashion Week. But Anupama Dayal also showed the collection (sustained by old printing and needle work techniques) that she will be presenting at the Australian Fashion week in Sydney next month.
“Wanderlust” has been the underlying thread through all of Sonam Dubal’s collections, and for LFW Fall 2008, he chose the title, Trailing the River Goddess, inspired by the rivers Brahmaputra, Mekong and Nile. The styles were intrinsically Indo-Oriental, the colour palette flowing with turquoise blue, crimson, and forest green with touches of yellow and orange, along with his trade mark wrap dresses embellished by beautiful embroidery and vibrant tribal prints.
Inspired by nature
The Road Less Travelled was the title opted by Gen Next designers Jenjum Gadi and Jasleen Kocchar. Enthused like Dayal by nature, their inspirations were flowers, bark, paint and leaves which translated into garments like baby doll pinafores and lightly quilted shifts in colours like blue, orange and plum on wool, silk, velvet, chiffon, Chanderi and georgette fabrics. The look, all in all, was young and energetic. Another Gen Nexter, Geetika Gulia, titled her line The Fold as a tribute to travellers for whom space is, invariably, a problem. She had perma-pleated silk dresses, bags and tops in bronze, moss, grey and black. Each outfit could be folded into the smallest of carrybags, ideal for the jet setting working woman.
The past inspired Gen Nexter Neelanjan Ghosh who used colours like chocolate, plum, olive, teal, petrol, grey, emerald with hints of pink, red, peach, yellow for pretty dresses, delicately quilted jackets, shrugs, waistcoats and sweatshirts in silk, satin, velvet and knit for the utterly feminine collection. Narendra Kumar Ahmed’s women’s wear collection was a glamorous line inspired by love trysts in northern India. His garments consisted of sharply cut jackets, trousers, overcoats, skirts and dresses tailored in peach, fuchsia, silver, red, and burgundy hued taffeta, silk, tweed, wool, Lurex, georgette, satin and suede. He dazzled the audience with his colourfully turbaned and bearded male models who strode down the ramp with a giant visual of the F1 race track in the background and a pulsating bhangra beat from the audio.
Vishvajeet Dhir presented a line of separates comprising white low waist jeans, jackets and bubble minis with quilted flaps and detailing, poncho blouses, embossed satin jackets, and quilted corsets over chiffon balloon skirts projecting stylish day to evening wear.
Retro look
Manish Gupta employed an all-ivory palette for his collection titled Unspoken which had perfectly pin tucked and quilted dresses, textured skirts, and silk drop waist machined minis. Pleating played a major role in Abhishek Byas’ collection of asymmetric silhouettes inspired by the early 19th century colonial costumes of India. Bringing together layers, drapes and detailing in shades of brown, green, grey, mauve, Byas’ line was imbued with a markedly retro touch.
Chennai designer Vivek Karunakaran’s collection consisted of trendy women’s wear in wine dark georgettes and royal silks; some of the dresses were lined with richly sequined fabric. Way out!
Another foreign-trained designer, Anand Kabra, was once told by his teacher David Kappo at the London College of Fashion, “India is a part of you. It will never leave you. But now that you are here, open yourself up to this world too.” That perhaps explains his proclivity for typical Indian fabrics, colours and embellishments conjoined with detailed attention to technique, cut and silhouette. For his collection “Renato’s Malena”, inspired by Giuseppe Tornatore’s 2000 film adaptation of Luciano Vincenzoni’s coming of age short story set in Fascist Italy, Kabra took hues of black, at times, white and clay with scarlet, teal and ochre, finding expression in sensuous silks and voluptuous organzas. Textured, embroidered and hand painted, the “rose” interprets Malena’s determined will to survive her circumstances.
Sailex Ngarangbam was inspired by a cartoon character, Emily. Skin tight trousers, quilted wraps on skirts and jackets, trench coats, a black quilted tuxedo suit with a green cummerbund, all worn with towering platform shoes in green or black with long beaded necklaces.
A girl called Rose in a war devastated world served as the Muse for Rajesh and Anirban’s RA collection which employed variations in blue as the focal point with muted tones like grey, anthrax, brown in fabrics ranging from georgettes, tweeds, yarn dyed and printed plaids, mohair, lace, cord, leather, silk, cotton, wool and polyester viscose.
Abhishek Dutta staked claim to the Save the Girl Child campaign for his collection Third Wave. Mannequins swayed to a medley of classical and sacred music and contemporary rhythms wearing glitzy men’s and women’s wear in mustard yellow, canary, orange, purple and magenta teamed with grey, black, beige and olive. Stitch work, quilting cutwork and hand crochet edged the saris, one pallu bore a large reproduction of the Assumption into Heaven of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
But we were bowled over by young Darsheel Safary of “Taare Zameen Par” fame. We sighed when Gregory “Shantaram” Roberts, a Mumbai based writer and ex convict and his blue blooded lady love Princess Francoise Sturza waltzed on the ramp for Pria Kataria Puri. And we were impressed by Sabyasachi’s choice of showstopper, his sister and colleagues. Dutta chose to sign off his collection with his adorable 14-month-old son, Aaryansh, who, dressed in a Kathak-inspired ensemble, took baby steps down the ramp, holding on tightly to the hand of a model wearing an outfit designed for West Asian women. Shockingly, little Aaryansh fell off the catwalk when the silly girl took a sharp turn at the edge. But the little angel didn’t cry but he couldn’t make the return trip though. A few hesitant steps down the ramp, and his little legs gave way. Whereupon the model picked him up in her arms and walked backstage, waving cheerily on the way.
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