“The designers are quite happy that the show is picking up and the footfalls are tremendous. Indian handloom has been displayed in the best way and the season special happens to be Chanderi, which has been played with by almost every designer,” said Narendra Kumar, creative director of Amazon India Fashion Week. Finally, ethnic chic is shaping our comfort zone. Ankita Jain and Unnati Joshi report
No to bling
With more of surface texturing and embroidery, Payal Pratap’s collection explored myriad stitches in geometric, patchwork and crocheted patterns. Tonal as well as contrast embroidery were highlight of the show. Besides, floral motifs were also seen. The designer said, “Geometric and patchwork prints have been created to complement the solids used in the collection.” Silhouettes taking the form of gentle drapes, structured jackets and cropped boleros, peplum jackets with gathered sleeve details, jumpsuits and day dresses paired with flat leather shoes defined her collection. The fabrics used were linen, cotton, cotton silk Chanderis, linen blends and khadi. The colour palette played around teal blue, Bordeaux, ivory and sandalwood. Moreover, the collection catered to the people who aren’t in favour of bling and love easy wear. “The collection has many twists in the shapes as well as textures. It is easy, wearable and contemporary, targetting a well-travelled globally aware consumer with a penchant to experiment,” added the designer. Also, during the show, live music was played by Komorebi.
Trend: Geometric patterns
The twisted Tale
Kavita Bhartia presented Route'd Iznik, her latest collection inspired by iznik pottery from the Turkish lands. The silhouettes were gilets, tiered skirts, draped dresses, tunics and creative pants with an aesthetic colour palette moving from vanilla cream, white, cobalt blue to black and red. Actress Tisca Chopra graced the ramp wearing a red and black sari with a waist coat from the designer’s collection. “I have always been Kavita's fan and I love this sari. I like saris re-imagined like classic saris, saris with shirts or crop tops or in this case sari with a waist coat,” she said.
Trend: Jackets
Spinning khadi
“I had interest in khadi right from my student days at NID (National Institute of Design). What is special about khadi is that it is spun into yarn by hand,” said David Abraham. The duo, Abraham and Thakore, therefore, spun an Indian story on the ramp transforming khadi from a “limited” fabric into something vibrant and functional in sync with the international look. They wanted to take khadi out of the “politically correct” space it has traditionally belonged to and they certainly managed it with elan. The show begun with a model wearing gold-laminated khadi bustier and sari. “Gold is all about bling and shine. But this outfit is deceptive; nobody can make out that it is made of khadi,” said Abraham known for his subtle style. Besides, palazzo pants, skirts, cutwork dresses, printed kurtas, jogger pants, shawl, block print kurtas, cambric cutwork coat were seen as a part of his collection. Black, white, coffee made up the colour palette. Block print khadi bags stole the show. “The block print is inspired from the Hare Rama Hare Krishna printed kurtas and we have incorporated this in the bags as well as a few outfits,” designer.
Trend: Shining khadi
Subtle Hues
Designer Siddhartha Tytler's show started with a pair of model displaying men's wear as well as women's wear. For men it had floral suits and subtle kurta pyjamas with embroidered dupattas rapped around. While for women we saw, beautiful floral kurtas with dhoti pants, harem pants with crop tops and jackets and lehngas with slip in blouses with jackets or peplum blouses. “My collection is inspired by the voynich manuscript, which is a book and is about 500 years old. You are going to see lot of pastels and softer colours the coming season, no bolds this season,” emphasized the designer.
Trend: Pastel colours.
The Quirky blues
Anupama Dayal’s The Pirates of Calcutta focused on the blues and whites. Her philosophy has always been to create an international look with the Indian soul.The collection had oversized kurtas, loose overalls with a shrug, dress with fringes, off shoulder jumpsuits and everything that defined spring. The attraction here was the colourful pirate caps and the how the designer styled the models with only one earring and a jute anklet. We loved everything about her collection.
Trend: The over-sized
Cape story
Rabina & Rakha's ensembles compromised of various styles and silhouettes for contemporary Indian women. Be it the flared gowns, asymmetrical gowns with capes, dhoti pants or elegantly designed saris, the collection was delicate but blingy. Colour palette whirled from sand, honey to apricot and ice peach.
Trend: Capes.
The modern women
Ashima leena's Romance of the florals was inspired by the nature, a combination of soft fabrics like chiffon, georgette, etc. While the colours revolved around the pastel shades of pale blue and pink, with white lotuses and leaves put together on yellow and orange fabrics with hints of sparkle. Talking about saris, the duo incorporated ruffles as borders for breezy flow, while the pallu had birds designed in it. Models were seen wearing sunglasses on the ramp. Asked about it, the designer said, “My woman travels to Dubai, she can go to New York, she is a global traveller.”
Trend: Florals.
Photo: Pankaj Kumar