The Uncensored Household
In a more unusual step, the grand finale of Amazon India Fashion Week included two designer brands: internationally acclaimed, Tarun Tahiliani and Amit Aggarwal who has a high profile in India.
The theme of the finale was ‘Fresh New Look’ as directed by event sponsor, Amazon. Tarun Tahiliani showcased new contemporary Continue reading
Two stand out shows on day four of Amazon India Fashion Week include Ashima Leena and Malini Ramani.
Ashima Leena’s collection was inspired by blue pottery and orientalism amongst an array of other inspirations:
Vineet Bahl’s show at Amazon India Fashion Week was entitled Code and came with its own hashtags. The show notes said it was a collection for women who don’t dress to impress but are confident themselves.
Day two at Amazon India Fashion Week had beautiful array of designer collections but I wonder how many of them flock to warmer pastures during Winter. North India is bloody cold in Winter yet the South remains lovely and warm. Flimsy silks and bare legs show that only jet setters need to pay attention!
Design Duo, Hemant & Nandita’s collection was entitled Dynamism with a beautiful contrast of metallics and pastel shades:
Parting Lips was the title of the Krishna Mehta show at Amazon India Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2017. The collection was lovely and colourful but the press release was utter gobbledegook to me as Continue reading
We’re women and we’re feminists. Bunty and I have always identified as feminists and we grew up in feminist households where the men were also feminists. What is International Women’s Day about?
Is it an annual appraisal of ‘women’s issues’ based on progress and regress of women’s rights? Is it about celebration and protest? It it Continue reading
What does it mean to be a celebrity feminist and do they help or hinder the cause? Can they even call themselves so?
In an article in The Guardian, a journalist forensically analyses the contribution of so-called Hollywood Feministas (my word) and whether they failed. Feminists such as Emma Watson are berated Continue reading
What an amazing city London is. Not only a world capital, a fashion capital, an art and architectural capital, but can it now claim to to be the most tolerant and integrated capital city?
After what everyone agrees was a racist, vicious campaign by the Tories and their candidate, Zac Goldsmith, the majority election of Continue reading
My sis and I went to watch Attacking The Devil: Harold Evans and the Last Nazi War Crime at the Picture House Cinema (Central London) on Tuesday this week and it was so worthwhile. It’s hard to describe a moving documentary on such an important subject matter with the usual ‘must-see, fantastic’ as the subject matter is so upsetting.
The documentary charts Sir Harold Evans’ rise to the top of newspaper editing which is very inspirational itself but the real gem Continue reading
A tribal trend was emerging on day 3 at Amazon India Fashion Week as a couple of designers showcased their latest collections for AW16. Whilst the catwalk looks may not translate into styles most Continue reading
Indian designer, Rimzim Dadu took a break from fashion shows for a couple of years to re-organise her company. One might think she went from a catwalk to a lab coat: she created a technically striking ‘Back to The Future’ collection that included some traditional Indian Continue reading
The Hemant & Nandita brand and design duo are recognised for their strong prints and this collection played to their strengths. The outerwear was particularly strong and interestingly, finally relevant for an Indian Winter. I’ve been covering Indian fashion for many Continue reading
Varun Bahl is a wonderful Indian couturier who was invited to do the coveted opening show for Amazon India Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2016 which also hailed his return to ready-to-wear.
The collection was entitled ‘Nocturne’ hailing the usual suspects of said inspiration. I really liked the bomber jackets and the styling Continue reading
An indie flick from Pakistan has been wowing critics and I found myself part of a 300 strong crowd at its premier in London last week.
Manto is the kind of literary figure that my mum becomes glaze eyed about and she’ll suddenly recite passages and look at me with an air of pride at how, clearly, all artists in Urdu are superior to any other.
Manto was a controversial writer whose career spans the 40s and Continue reading
I sort of hobbled over to the Bloomsbury Curzon to catch The Danish Girl with Bunty as I had just knocked back a bottle of prosecco with another friend.
I arrived before Bunty and temporarily forgot what I was meant to be watching, asked the bar staff which screen The Danish Lady was in. I was duly informed that The Danish GIRL was upstairs and that the toilets were behind me. I was pissed and confused: But I never asked about the toilets. I clearly looked like I needed a mirror or something.
Bunty and two more girlfriends joined me, we got another bottle of prosecco, I spilled popcorn in the foyer (mortified!) and we finally sat down to watch the film. What kind of pathetic girl does this character want to be?? Continue reading
Proving that pop art is more than Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, The World Goes Pop at the Tate Modern is an exhibition that tracks pop art through the ages and the world. We couldn’t recommend it enough. Rarely has such an amazing Continue reading
As we all know, amazing films come out in January and this month is definitely filled with excellent films to check out. If you’ve already seen the Danish Girl and the Hateful Eight is way too violent then we recommend Jennifer Lawrence’s new flick, Joy. The film is the true story about the rise of Joy Mangano from poor singe mom to global entrepreneur. Robert DeNiro is her dad, Isabella Rossellini plays his girlfriend. What is there not to like? Continue reading
There have been so many puns and word play opportunities with the Delhi government’s Odd/Even car policy to reduce pollution that every possible combination must have been exhausted.
I was in Delhi for the whole of November and December 2015. I partly live in Delhi and I have never experienced the pollution to be as bad as it was. I started coughing even during the drive from the airport. Continue reading
My ONLY regret from last year was that on the 18th of December 2015, instead of joining the entire Western hemisphere at the cinema for the movie release of the decade, I was freezing my tits off in Delhi.
Oh, does Delhi get cold in Winter? Yes indeed. And there is no central heating or double glazing!!
My disloyal family went to the cinema without me ‘oh but we will watch it for the second time with you’ thanks guys! One of my dear cousins even spoiled it for me by revealing a key part of the story. Continue reading
Brow verdict: YES
In a cruel twist of fate, the mono brow that used to spread across our teenage faces now wakes up every morning in patches.
Brows have been big news for a while now and most women our age have over plucked at some stage so here is our opinion on some fillers out there at the moment: Continue reading
I’m going to Delhi for a couple of months soon and one of the things I look forward to is a Saturday night drink and a bit of dancing at my favourite bar, Buzz! Buzz is the craziest and most amazing place not due to the decor, which is the average typical bar style, but due to the crowd it pulls and the music.
Buzz is in MGF Mall behind Select City Walk Mall and it will only get busy around 11pm. I’m quite lazy and lucky (a convenient Continue reading
Will I look like Samantha in that scene in Sex And The City? That was my only question when asked by the fantastic and patient clinician at the Sk:n Clinic during my consultation. No!
I don’t know quite what started my obsession reading about skin peels but the more I read the more I was convinced I needed one. Continue reading
Ooh fancy that, The Chatterjis Blog has been nominated Best Blog at this year’s Asian Media Awards! In its third year of recognising and rooting for Asian talent in the mainstream and online media, the awards are backed by some of the British media industry’s biggest players.
Other nominees for best blog include: Continue reading
It seems as though almost every week a deluded Muslim family from the UK disappears to join Isis. They could at least add a note on Facebook or Gumtree that they’re looking for a home swap with a Continue reading
The theme of the Grand Finale this season at Amazon India Fashion Week SS16 was textiles of Varanasi or Benaras as it is traditionally known. Continue reading
I wasn’t particularly wowed by the shows on the last 2 days at Amazon India Fashion Week in which one desperate designer even included a huge Lucky Strike cigarette packet on a T shirt. The best shows gave us romantic fashion in two very different yet beautiful ways.
Holiday vibes were the predominant theme on day 3 of Amazon India Fashion Week, however, a new fashion category emerged: ethnic sports luxe, Adidas stripes on a Sari and kaftan? We saw it here first!
I love the different inspiration each designer puts into clothes that we might wear in a given season. Here is my pick of the best looks from Day 2 at AIFW SS16, a day that took us to the Summer of ’69, the 1950s and more! Continue reading
Key looks from Day 1 with an international appeal by Kavita Bhartia and Vineet Bahl:
Amazon India Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2016 in association with Maybelline is well under way and as usual, you can take a peak at the best shows here at The Chatterjis Blog!
Opening proceedings this season was top designer, Sanjay Garg and his brand Raw Mango. The show was dedicated to one fabric: mashru. Mashru was introduced to India by the Mughals it is a cotton and silk weave originally created to provide ‘halal’ fabric for menswear (silk for Muslim men is deemed haram, oh yes of course…). Production stopped in India in the 1940s inspiring Sanjay Garg and his company to re-instate the skill in Benaras. Now his hugely successful brand helps to keep the textile alive.
The designer’s vibrant colour palette and elaborate designs demonstrate the beauty and drape of the fabric. Repeat motifs and stripes are in step with the traditional origins of Mashru.
Bubbly
Former investment banker turned psychiatrist, Lucy Beresford will be at Asia House on 6th October (evening) discussing her book, Invisible Threads a fictional book drawing on the author’s experiences in India.
Although a fictional book, Lucy did a sabbatical at a clinic in Delhi and was introduced to women coming from desperate, violent Continue reading
The truth can be elastic as it sometimes depends upon the perspective and knowledge of the person making the claim, however, Mr A S Dulat, formerly the head of India’s intelligence agency (Research & Analysis Wing) can perhaps claim to know the truth more than most of us. Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years by A S Dulat was launched in London last week at a lovely event at the Taj St James’ Court with guest of honour, Dr Farooq Abdullah (former Chief Minister of Kashmir, the Indian side).
It was a packed event with people standing at the back of the room. I had encouraged Mr Dulat to launch his book in London and as adorably humble as ever, he said ‘who would want to come to that?’ Loads of people was my reply! A couple of months later and there we were celebrating.
Kashmir is a well known and forever difficult subject for Indians and Pakistanis and often the Continue reading
The last event I attended on the final day of the Edinburgh International Book Festival was an event centred around feminism: In Praise of Pioneering Women by Caroline Criado-Perez. Caroline was catapulted into media attention after she started the campaign to put an inspirational woman on the £5 note. Her campaign led to her being viciously trolled on social media and subsequently the Crown Continue reading
Poor Meera Syal, the expectations were so high from the audience around me and indeed myself that she would be incredibly sharp and witty and have us in stitches that once the discussion started and it became clear that it was all about surrogacy and motherhood (the main subjects her fictional book centres around) we were a little disappointed.
Of course Meera should want to promote her new book, The House of Hidden Mothers, at the Edinburgh International Book Festival there’s nothing wrong with that. I’m just not Continue reading
Soft spoken, calm and a leading authority on Islam, Carole Hillenbrand is a Professor of Islamic History at both Edinburgh and St Andrews Universities. Her new book, Islam: A New Historical Introduction aims to allow readers to gain a sensitive understanding of the essential tenets of the religion and of the many ways in which the present is shaped by the past.
The author’s hour long event at the Edinburgh International Book Festival was the perfect split between highlights from her book and questions from the eager audience. I thought this event would be too much of a niche interest but interestingly it sold out. We can’t Continue reading
For a few seconds, time stopped and the audience dropped a collective jaw as Yasmin Alibhai-Brown asked if we knew that the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne’s brother was a Muslim convert, Mohammed Osborne. No we didn’t! But…but… how did that happen?
It was a sell out session with the charismatic journalist and writer, Continue reading
Professor of Philosophy, A C Grayling gave a wonderful presentation of essays yesterday afternoon at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. His new book is a collection of essays of a variety of subjects quite like in the ‘pre-novel’ era when essays were highly regarded.
An example of of one of his adapted essays: In the future would developing countries look to China as a model for development rather that the West and democracy? The Chinese model works well Continue reading
Without the snazzy graphics and collagen-filled lips of the real C.S.I. the totally fabulous C.S.Aye team consisted of internationally acclaimed crime writer, Val McDermid and forensics expert extraordinaire, Niamh Nic Daeid who often appears on BBC Radio 4 to explain forensic science to the general public with ease and she was interviewed for the wonderful Life Scientific programme.
The hour in their company at the Edinburgh International Book Festival event flew by and it was full of fascinating information about a world that most of us are rarely touched by but nonetheless find Continue reading
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