Resorts galore but where’s the attire?
In my five years of editing the asiaSpa, India magazine my worst fears come alive when I have to do the fashion spread shoots. Keeping in mind the profile of the magazine, the shoots are mainly about resort and beach wear. At the risk of sounding ignorant (maybe I don’t know the right designers) I have to admit that it is a difficult task finding the right resort wear.
While the fashion scenario has improved by leaps and bounds in the last decade and here I am just replaying the first fashion week in my mind when I stood in a corner to interview the dapper and the handsome Raghavendra Rathore participating in the first ever Fashion Week, 2000. held in India, in one corner of Taj Palace hotel in Dhaula Kuan, New Delhi to the present FDCI Fashion Week led by the dynamic Sunil Sethi and a team of dedicated board members. Incidentally the finale was done by Wendell Rodricks, Tarun Tahiliani and Rathore for that historical fashion week!
Off and on I am told that designers are doing a collection of resort wear, but when I go sourcing for the ensembles for the shoot, I am shown racks from where I am asked to select outfits that may fit in the resort wear shoot I have been planning for weeks. Yes, Malini Ramani has been doing resort wear for ages now, and Yes Ranna Gill’s long flowing dresses are perfect for resort wear, but these two veteran designers collections cannot be repeated for all the shoots that may have a different theme each time.
It’s a pleasant surprise when I hear names like Parvesh and Jai, Amit GT, Ashish, Viral and Vikrant, Pashma, Raman Vij, Rakesh Agarwal, Hemant and Nandita, Umesh Vashisht among others doing the resort wear collections. Lecoanet – Hemant recently did the organic eco friendly collection, Neeta Bhargava has been planning and designing a spa and resort wear line and Wendell has been doing fabulous resort wear collection for years, yet there is a dearth of resort wear that needs serious attention.
Raghavendra Rathores resort collection which he did for the Millionaire Asia event in four cities recently had his trademark finesse of fine fitting and excellent cuts but since then I haven’t seen much of resort wear from him unless of course one especially orders it. Similarly is the case with Tarun Tahiliani who did a resort wear collection for one of our events, which was fabulous of course with his trademark style.
And that seems to be case for every socialite who’s heading to the Riviera or the beaches in Bangkok to-order a customized one. Sadly it is still uncommon to walk into a designer boutique and pick up stylized resort wear off the shelf unless you are good at pairing separates to make up a resort wear which is not just about a bikini top, a sarong or a transparent tunic. There is much that goes on a resort holiday as everyone knows.
With the buzz being wellness and spa treatments available in an organized and elaborate manner in most of the resorts now, resort wear and spa wear to a certain extent must be given a serious thought.
Posted by : Arati Thapa Group Editor Asia Spa India at 10:45 AM
