Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

`Women are the new men'

Kiran Uttam Ghosh's collection for Rome Fashion Week blurs gender boundaries with style

A DIFFERENT CUT A model in Kiran's outfit

"What is most beautiful in a man is something feminine, what is most beautiful in a woman is what is masculine." Kiran Uttam Ghosh quotes Susan Sutong to describe her collection that she is taking to the Rome Fashion Week.

She says hers is a collection that explores and then subverts the notions of gender and gender identity. "It is about complementary opposites rather than absolutes." Created with fabrics usually used for menswear, like pinstripes, hounds-tooth - small broken check - and other forms of checks played off against printed georgettes and chiffons, Kiran avers the collection aims to maintain its femininity despite the stark colour palette of black, brown, blackberry, grey and white. Silhouettes include high-waist pleated trousers with turn-ups, Jodhpuris, churidar pants, angarkhas, jackets with large shawl collars, wing collars, three-quarter sleeves, empire waistlines and boat-necks, creating a `50s look.

`Hide and seek'

On the use of pinstripe, Kiran, known for her attention to detail, explains, "The pinstripe has played hide and seek with fashion. Disappearing chameleon-like and then reappearing reassuringly. Yet, down the ages, the pinstripe has been the preserve of the powerful. It has a mystique, a sinister sensation to it.

Above all, the pinstripe has been the legacy of the lads. In an age where gender is passé, it was the perfect time to usher in the pinstripe and fuse it with female fashion."

So the cufflinks jostle with brooches, Kolhapuris collide with wedges, and the shirts have been pitted against saris. "Women are the new men," quips Kiran, who trained under British designer Jasper Conran and rose to fame with her Kimono line.

Having skipped both this year's fashion weeks, Kiran reasons it was not because she no longer requires pushing her brand.

"I believe we are as good as our last collection, and therefore cannot ever sit back. While my collections have always sold well, however, if I am to do more good serious work I have to have time for growth, experimentation and perspective.

Just hurtling through our crazy schedules may have worked in the past, but today it doesn't make me happy. I saw the benefits of the `Flapper Girl' collection I did for India Fashion Week in 2005.

It got me national and international business for one-and-a-half years. It taught me to focus on one fashion week a year. And this year it's Rome."

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail