BENGALURU: Embellished, embroidered, brocade or neutral! It’s the season to get cozy chic and if you are looking to elevate your fall/winter outfits to make the upcoming season exciting, your sartorial essential would be incomplete without a great-looking statement jacket or coat. While neutrals never go out of style, a statement coat gives that finishing touch or can become the entire focus of your look.
Consider a jacket cool enough for summer’s yet warm enough for our ooru’s light winters. Snob, a quirky-yet-contemporary label by Bengaluru designers Mani Shankar & Ritu Jain serves us just that! Adding an air of slickness, the collection ‘Shackets of India’ is a hybrid of a shirt and jacket in linens inspired by regional languages. What makes these jackets a keeper? Lightweight and airy, they can be worn all year round, layered or simply worn directly.
On the other hand, if you are all for characterful dressing that whispers rather than shouts, label Alamelu from the House of Angadi combines the graphic allure of handwoven Ikat and the luxuriously tactile fabrics woven at their state of the art textile facilities, the collection titled ‘Architexture’ offers a thoroughly effortless and timeless lineup of ready-to-wear jackets for the modern woman. While trench coats and jackets have always been synonymous with the phrase “wardrobe classic”, thanks to its seasonless and genderless offering, a jacket made with a clever combination of age-old techniques and modern design become a perfect accompaniment to everything from your luxe separates for a ultra glam night out to your basic pair of jeans.
For someone with a classic sense of style, Bengaluru jewellery designer Chitra Pathi’s unusual sartorial choice of a vintage brocade blazer suit by Suket Dhir, over a traditional Indian outfit, for her daughter’s wedding ceremony certainly made a bold statement. Pathi says, “Traditionally, one veers towards a sari/salwar suit, especially if the investment is substantial, which means you would ideally like it to be occasion wear for many years to come! So while selecting the blazer suit I realised that all my reasons for investing in it fit the bill – versatility of wearing it in multiple ways, comfort and achieving a different look as a bride to be mom in a pantsuit ! The blazer is as classic as a sari in my opinion and well worth it.”
This season, there are many fall /winter jackets to choose from, but when it comes to pieces with timeless appeal, there are few more enduring than a vintage coat or a classic trench, and if you have your basic jackets in place, it’s a good time to invest in a statement jacket which adds an elevated polish to your outfit. But if you are not looking to spend too much, then add a touch of individualism and re-fashion your old denim jacket or coat, get creative with DIY embroidered foliage, vintage lace, your grandma’s ornate brooches, pins or anything fun which will up the personality to your otherwise plain coat.
Whether it is investing in a statement coat or refurbishing an old one, it’s the season to definitely bring in some good cheer into our closets. “The incoming mood isn’t just about high-drama, head-turning style. People just want to feel happy again,” says celebrity stylist Nicole Chavez to an international news portal. And we can’t agree more!