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:
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
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
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
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 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??
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?
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.
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:
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.
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
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
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
I arrived at the Edinburgh International Book Festival today for my first book event of this year’s packed programme, brolly in hand and wearing two layers of cashmere. Yes, it is August, welcome to Summer in Scotland.
Ziauddin Sardar’s new book, Mecca The Sacred City was the topic of discussion and the charismatic author was full of hilarious anecdotes and opinions of Saudi Arabia that mirror my own. Of course, unlike him, I’m not a respected scholar nor have I spent time living there.
It is in the direction of Mecca and the Ka’aba that all Muslims turn to when (or if) they pray. Mecca is the birth place of the Prophet and pilgrimage to the Ka’aba is one of the five pillars of Islam, a duty for all Muslims. So why do the guardians of the holiest sites in the Islamic behave like ‘cultural terrorrists’? Ziauddin Sardar is no fan of
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’.
London’s incredible Asia House Bagri Foundation Literature Festival begins this week – don’t worry, you still have time to get a ticket as it runs from 7 – 18 May.
The line up is as impressive and diverse as ever and launches on 7 May with the acclaimed author Xue Xinran who will be celebrating the release of her new book, Buy Me the Sky. Xinran will be discussing the new generation of China which is such a fascinating topic, we can’t wait to attend.
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
BBC2 ran a programme rather late on Thursday night called Jihadi Brides. I happened to see it after reaching saturation point with Question Time on BBC1 so it was an accidental yet intriguing insight into these young girls and women as well as their ideology. I’m a Muslim woman (selectively practicing), too old/wild to be groomed but quite bemused by these holier than thou Muslims. These are some of the opinions raised from the programme:
1. Professional: These young women are not stupid, they are intelligent and educated.
2. Professional: The young women may lack an ability for critical thinking.
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