The India Beach Fashion Week recently concluded in picturesque Goa. PRAKRITI ROY attends the fashion week to bring you the latest fashion for destination weddings and resort wear
Goa was the perfect destination for the recently held third edition of the India Beach Fashion Week (IBFW). With a focus on beach wear, resort wear and destination wedding wear, the festival celebrating innovative fashion was held over three days. The IBFW is the largest festival that is exclusively dedicated to this theme.
Collections by veteran designers, upcoming designers as well as design students were showcased. The opening show was by Neeta lulla. Museum of Goa, the artistic setting which has a number of innovative art installations, was the venue for the inaugural show, perfect for showcasing lulla’s collection that was based on femininity, romance and the inner strength of today’s woman. The flowy garments were mostly in the pastel hues and embellished with royal embroidery. Next was the collection by students of Rachna Sansad School of Design. The students showcased two outfits each — one streetwear and the other bridal. Not only did the students create the designs but they also created the prints from scratch.
The highlights of the day began with Sanjukta Dutta’s collection, with Zarine Khan as the showstopper. The entire collection featured sarees known as the Mekhala Chador, traditional attire from Assam. Sanjukta said: “I gave up engineering and took up designing because I love these sarees so much. I want to promote them and everyone to know about them.” The sarees were in all possible hues and were draped traditionally or in contemporary silhouettes. Taking forward the trend of looking more authentic, Sanjukta ditched the high heels and instead her model walked the ramp barefeet with only a golden ribbon tied on the feet.
Some prominent names were also present at the fashion week as showstoppers. Divya Khosla Kumar walked the ramp for Sukriti and Akriti. Their collection was all about the colours of summer and sunset hues, and encompassed the boho bride. “The focus was on the boho bride. Destination weddings are all about comfort in packing and wearing. Our silhouettes reflect that. Divya is the perfect boho bride for us. She is multitalented, feminine and delicate. She fits in perfectly with our collection,” Akriti said. “I had an amazing experience being in Goa and walking the ramp for them. The entire collection is definitely very beautiful and quite chilled out. I had my eyes on few of the pieces,” Divya said.
Mayyur Girotra’s black and white couples outfits also stood out. Describing his collection, he said: “All these are clothes you can carry on your honeymoon. They are fun, lightweight, comfortable. You don’t need to bother about ironing and there won’t be any packing hassles. They are perfect for beach destinations.” The showstopper for the collection was Tanishaa Mukerjee.
Falguni and Shane Peacock also collaborated with Golecha Jewels and presented their stunning beachwear collection, complete with the most beautiful jewellery.
The festival saw quite a number of collections by labels like Gabanna, Chinar Shinde and Isha and Garima, to name a few. The collections collectively encompassed all things associated with a destination wedding, right from beautiful beach and resort wear, to outfits that can be worn for weddings.
Sooraj Pancholi was the showstopper for Anuj Madan, one of the few designers who only creates menswear.
His comfortable resort wear collection was perfectly suited to the theme of the fashion week.
Darshi Shah and Bhavin Trivedi (DSBT) also showcased a beautiful collection that was inspired from art. “We usually fall back upon different kinds of art from different periods of history. This time, Darshi narrowed down on Sandro Boticelli from the medieval period. That’s where we got the drapes and subdued hues from. Also the use of just dashes of colour here and there. Keeping in mind our bridal wear clientele, we adapted it,” Amit said. The baroque embroidery on the outfits is adapted in various other ways likezardozi and appliqué, along with the use of lace fabrics and capes instead of dupattas.
The fashion week ended on a high note with renowned designer Varun Bahl’s tropical forest collection. Bahl said: “A natural jungle depiction where jewelled owls peep out from flowering hydrangeas and trellises were turned into disciplined stripes inspired by Slavic folk costumes. Creating of a magical love affair of an urban, fashion conscious woman who has decided to give into her love for bohemia with abandon ends up becoming a fashion magpie to create her fantasy.” The colour palette was stimulated from tropical forests and vintage wallpaper patterns and the intricate amalgamation of design and innovation in his creation was a fitting closure to the awe-inspiring fashion week.