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
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:
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
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
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
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.
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
With this collection, Manish Malhotra celebrated 10 years of his couture house and 25 years as a costume designer for the Indian film industry. His Bollywood fan club was out in full support on the night, generations of stars and super stars sitting in front row, the paparazzi going wild.
As if these two fantastic milestones weren’t enough to celebrate, demonstrating that good things come in three’s, Manish Malhotra announced that two new flagship boutiques would open in 2016, one in London and the other in Dubai. Both world class shopping
Debarun Mukherjee’s couture collection embarked on a journey through Indian cinematic costume through the decades from the black and white days of the 1930s to the present time. Of course, little has changed in hundreds of years of traditional Indian fashion let alone a few decades. Colours and trims come in and out of fashion
Indian couturier, Manav Gangwani’s show was entitled ‘Le’amoureuse’ or the beloved in English. He really should have stuck with English as the French is grammatically incorrect and has, incidentally, been widely re-printed with the same error across other media. I know this is a fashion review not a French lesson but if you’re going to have pretensions, at least Google your French.
Back to the collection… The show was set in a floral garden with a long winding catwalk. An hour late, the audience had to wait longer
Rimple and Harpreet Narula, AICW 2015, Photography: FDCI‘Maharadja & Co’ was the title of the Preciosa (Czec crystals) sponsored glamorous couture show by Rimple and Harpreet Narula. Celebrating the days and glory of the Raj is the essence of Rimple and Harpreet Narula’s brand (although every Indian designer invariably cites the same inspiration).
Rimple and Harpreet have endeavored to capture the very beginnings of the concepts of bespoke and portraiture in India with
Anju Modi’s show notes included a poem by my favourite Sufi poet, Rumi so I was won over from the start:
I asked, “Where is your home, beautiful moon?”
She said, “In the wreck of your heart so stone.
I am the sun shining into your ruin.
Long may you call this wild wasteland your home”.
Inspired by Persia, the show was entitled Kashish: an Urdu word, reflects an attraction, a deep desire and yearning for something; something which maybe never was. Well English words don’t mean so much do they?
Amazon India Couture Week 2015 might be the show in which Gaurav Gupta got his mojo back after a pretty bad pret collection. The show was called ‘Silt and Cipher’ with models glamorously made up to resemble woodland nymphs and goddesses. The golden hair was amazing!
Calcutta based extraordinary couturier, Sabyasachi opened Amazon India Couture Week in glorious fashion. The designer’s trademark indulgent yet sophisticated designs and his meticulously details catwalk stage was inspired this season by India’s most common hunting bird, a ‘Bater’.
We all have a tried and tested ‘face’ that we can slap on to trundle through a regular day. Of course ‘regular day’ is an elastic phrase if, like me, you’re of South Asian origin. Once upon a time my regular day face consisted of what most women would consider full bridal makeup. As I’ve gotten older my makeup has become significantly lighter and more sparing yet I still haven’t often been quite daring.
About a month went to the amaaaazing Guy Bourdin exhibition at Somerset House just before its final curtain call. The gift shop had an amazing Nars makeup range commissioned especially
There a few ingredients on TV that rock my boat: period drama, excellent fashion and style, architecture and politics. Mix all of these ingredients together and the outcome is INDIAN SUMMERS on Channel 4.
From the opening scenes of a sprawling villa in the Indian hills with indulgent hanging flowers and vines, you could almost inhale the heat and fragrance from the screen. After making me sickeningly envious of this property, we are slowing introduced to the characters who will keep us company at 9pm on Sunday evenings.
This season péro by Aneeth Arora lent her attention to military uniforms and the clothing and accessory items that have become staples over the decades, such as aviator sunglasses and khakis. She continued her exploration of Scottish checks (hand woven in the Himalaya region) and block printed textiles from Gujurat.
This season Sanchita showcased a collection inspired by ‘A Voyage of Discovery’ influenced by multiple stimuli, from gentle contemplation to upbeat, vivid experience. It wasn’t in the show notes but clearly there was a hint of Alexander McQueen’s Savage Beauty in the moulded feather headwear.
Melancholy show notes accompanied the press and buyers only presentation by Rohit Gandhi and Rahul Khanna titled An Early Frost: ‘And some times the frost visits early. Not just in the temperature but in life and existence seem fragile and cruel…This special collection is together a lament and a celebration of a life.’
With a toe, or sewing needle, dipped in India and the other in Russia, JJ Valaya’s Bolshoi Bazaar collection was an ode to regal indulgence.
India is of course JJ’s True Love and each season the designer merges Indian cultural inspiration with a foreign heritage as long as
Celebrating 25 years as a designer, Kavita Bhartia showed a retrospective of her designs with a collection that cemented her place as a veteran designer. The collection wasn’t so much a celebration of her greatest hit as it was a big cheers to the future. Beautifully crafted in flattering silhouettes and tones, her Ogaan
There wasn’t an ode to the NHS and the London Olympics opening ceremony in Rajesh Prarap Singh’s accompanying show notes. This is surely the most eccentric grand opening of Indian Fashion Week that I have seen: a catwalk filled with hospital beds and drips together with a live band.
Rajesh Pratap Singh is known for his innovative outlook in fashion
The gowns were all pretty meh this year so I thought it might be more interesting to concentrate on the hair and make up. After all, how many of us will ever wear a couture gown but we can all afford even the most expensive lipsticks and contouring powders!
The cold undertones of the bubblegum pink lippie is such a beautiful contrast to the nude dress and really flatters JLo’s skin tone.
Thandie Newton and Kerry Washington both demonstrate a perfect classic smoky eyes and rose lips look.
Rohit Bal @ WIFW SS15
Rohit Bal @ WIFW SS15
Wow!
So much beauty, luxury, indulgence, fashion and history all in the most stunning historic Mughal ruins in one of Delhi’s top tourist sites, Rohit Bal raised the bar to tremendous heights for Indian fashion. Even the moon and the weather obeyed the designer’s ode to beauty. The moon shone brightly to the right of one of the tombs at Qutab Minar and the outdoor temperature dropped from Sweaty to Serene.
Rajesh Pratap Singh @ WIFWSS15
Day 3 at Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week featured a couple of unmissable designers, Rajesh Pratap Singh and Ashish N Soni. These brands consistently produce collections that would seamlessly fit in to a woman’s wardrobe anywhere in the world being both sophisticated, exceedingly wearable whilst maintaining traces of their Indian DNA.
Rajesh Pratap Singh @ WIFWSS15
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