Designer Manish Arora's latest collection Indian, presented at the French Embassy, showcased how a modern bride would renounce everything mundane and go for some quirk and fun. By Shrabasti Mallik
Nothing can sizzle up a chilly wintry night better than Manish Arora. The ace designer, known for his classic and vibrant use of colours — lots and lots of them in all bright shades possible. And add to that that some amount of oomph and voila, you have the perfect Manish Arora design.
It has been some time that he has been away from the fashion circuit but he made a comeback and how! The French Embassy was the venue for his latest showcase titledIndian by Manish Arora Festive 2015-16: Designer’s Vision. The line was quite unique with plenty of bling and mica mirror work. Moreover, it was inspired by the modern bride who will renounce everything that is mundane and will pick up eye catching material for her wardrobe.
What grabbed eyeballs, apart from the gorgeous over embellished quasi-gothic clothes and the gladiator inspired headgear were shimmery skull bags. It reminded us of sculptor Damien Hirst’s work titled For the love of God, famous for bejewelled (with diamonds) skulls. The designs were inspired by the intricate mirror works in the courts of the Golestan Palace in Iran and the exquisite Ethiopian beadworks.
According to the designer, in the Topkapi Palace’s modern architecture, the modern bride gets a glimpse of the sacred while in Europe, she is enchanted by the eerie beauty of the Kosovo brides. “The collection has been in my mind for a long time. Everytime I visited one of these places I came across the ideas and it was about time I gave it shape,” said the designer.
In fact, so global is his bride that the designer included soft jeans material in his collection. There were a host of materials that he used in the collection ranging from crepe, cotton, chiffon, silk and, of course, jeans.
Very interestingly, every model who did not carry a decorated skull purse, carried an equally shimmery backpack. A major chunk of the collection were lehengas, paired with crop tops, kimono jackets and some exquisite looking cholis.
Unlike his designs or inspirations Arora’s colour palette has not changed. Bright pinks, luscious reds, bright greens and purple were pretty prominent in 31 ensemble collection. “There are various memories of my travels related to every garment. So, there is no one theme but different ideas to every dress,” he said.
The USP of the show, however, were masks. He had designed them keeping in mind the rising level of pollution in the city. “Everyone should be wearing them, and when you are so conscious about what you wear, why not some cool looking designer masks,” he pointed out.
Anything about the show would be incomplete if we do not talk about some of the quite offbeat headgears that the designer used. Some were warrior masks covering the face while some were inspired by the gladiator helmets with a tuff of feather running along the middle - front to back. There were also a hairband shaped head accessory which had metal ear cuffs.
Photos: Sanjeev Kumar