When couture is king and queen

Raising the curtain on the tenth edition of India Couture Week, which opens in New Delhi today.
When couture is king and queen

For those who wonder why couture in India largely means wedding wear, couturier Tarun Tahiliani explains, “Purchasing couture is always centred around an event. In India, the biggest event in one’s life is one’s wedding. Couture here is thus 99 per cent bridal or wedding occasion wear.” Which is not to say that all the outfits that will be unveiled at FDCI India Couture Week (ICW), which begins in New Delhi tomorrow, will be only for brides. But they will certainly be lavish and gorgeous enough to wear to a wedding, if that’s what your heart desires.

This is the tenth edition of ICW. The event has outlived all the bridal weeks that had popped up across India at one time, and has grown into one of the most  awaited events in India’s style calendar. FDCI president Sunil Sethi atributes this to the “substance and quality of the FDCI couturiers,” and adds,  “No one can keep real talent and creativity down.”

Creativity is right, as we’ll see when the event opens with the brilliant Rohit Bal and Anamika Khanna. Though Taj Palace in  Chanakyapuri is the official location, both Bal and Khanna have opted to situate their offerings elsewhere. Khanna is showcasing her couture collection, titled ‘Luxury 2017’, as installation pieces at The Kila in Mehrauli. The exhibition is designed like a wedding store that lays out India’s wedding traditions and reveals the effort that goes into making the clothes and jewellery.

The unmatchable, unflappable Bal is showing his Shahaan-e-Khaas collection at Bikaner House.Bal says the collection breathes new life into the costumes of the Mughals that you see immortalised in museums. The designer’s much-beloved lotus and peacock motifs are getting a new companion, with the designer introducing a new motif (that he’s even patented) this year. The ubiquitous ivory will be there, of course, but accompanied by royal indigo, pale rose and black.

Bal calls his collection a paean to lost craft and tradition, “a journey from the past to the present with a gentle nudge of contemporary influences”.

The master of opulence, Manav Gangwani, shows on Day 2. The name of his collection, India@70, promises a dazzling new direction. “There is so much inspiration all around us in India. Our rich heritage and cultural diversity opens so many doors for us designers to take inspiration from. Just consider India’s monumental structures, our deities, our crafts,” says the designer. True to his word, India@70 incorporates elements from the Jamawars of Kashmir, Bandhanis of Rajasthan as well as Patolas and Paithanis.

“I’ve also borrowed from Kerala’s Kathakali, from the Hindu pantheon of gods, miniature art and minakari. With each outfit presenting a unique element, I am showcasing the best of what India has to offer,” says Gangwani.

Tahiliani’s collection is called Tarakanna which, as the name suggests, pays tribute to the frothiness and romance of celestial bodies. Tahiliani says, “When one looks into the night sky in the wild, you see a layered universe of twinkling celestial bodies in suspended animation.” The clothes in this collection are much like that. Fabrics like tulle and georgette add lightness and enhance movement, hand-embroidered Swarovski crystals add the sparkle and intricate 3D embroidery creates the illusion of the imperceptible objects you see in the sky.

The collection has a confluence of Indian and Western techniques with “sunrise colours like orange and red married to the shades of the in-between light of lilac and soft pink”.
Anju Modi, on Day 4, is the perfect curator of our crafts, “endlessly inspired by our country’s craft legacy and compelled to absorb, preserve and revive it.” After her Kashish line, which featured in Bajirao Mastani and paid tribute to Persia, Modi looks closer home this time. Her ‘Sunehri Kothi’ collection takes inspiration from a palace in the interiors of Rajasthan that’s been looted and plundered, and yet stands resolute and proud.

“To me, that’s the spirit of Rajasthan and Rajputs, who have historically overcome battles with their pride intact. Just like a woman, whose spirit is relentless and full of courage,” says the designer. Like the rich miniatures of Rajasthan, she says her garments “bring alive the splendour of yesteryears not only through imagery but also through detailed brushwork and fine minakari and remnants of colours made from minerals, vegetables, indigo and conch shells, and embellished with precious stones, gold and silver.”
Rahul Mishra shows on the same day as Modi.

His collection is called Parizaad, which means born of the divine. It takes inspiration from Persian, Roman and Byzantine architecture “with their intricate use of geometric patterns, tiles of flowers and the mosaic of nature, emphasising great design aesthetics from a time when human skills seemed divine,” he explains. He’s used sheer fabrics to create a feather light feel, with an exploration of controlled volume. There are new hues of vibrant yellow and powder pink in use, but  Mishra says this collection is probably his most traditional, in its use of aari and zardosi. The overall look is a tailored one, with hybrids of traditional anarkalis and tailored coats.

Gaurav Gupta, the creator of the uber-modern, sculptured saree, has whipped up an enchanted, foresty offering for ICW.  The designer says the references for this collection are “sculptures found in the realm of a mythological forest”. Given the indigenous embroidery with pearls and glass beads on organza done in Kolkata, the quietly-powerful colours that go from powder blue to pale pink, dove grey and mint, and the laces that have been developed in-house over a four-month period, you can’t see Gupta’s new offerings as anything but Concentrated Couture. I’m told the setting will also be magical, with music freshly-composed for the party in the mythical forest.

On the penultimate day, Monisha Jaisingh makes a hat tip to the opera. The designer says “The idea for the collection was triggered by my memory of visiting the opera, watching the place overflowing with people in all their finery. I find the whole ambience of an Opera House, from the glorious clothes to the palatial stairways, to be exceptionally enticing.” The colour palette transitions from burgundy to rose pink, and from metallics to ice blue.

For his collection, the delightful Varun Bahl has gone the Art Nouveau way, drawing inspiration from decorative artist Alphonse Mucha’s work. The Czech painter’s highly aestheticized prints and paintings revealed his interest in natural forms and decoration, and rejected the anonymity of mechanical production.

Bahl’s new collection does much the same, as it  experiments with layered looks and intricate surface hand embroidery, and interplays between volume and structure. The motifs on the fabric are magnificent and evocative of Mucha’s more romantic paintings.
 Manish Malhotra, who has participated in eight ICWs, will close the event on July 30. This is the fourth time that he’ll be doing the grand finale.

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