July 2011 - Page 9 of 17

The 3rd edition of the Van Heusen Mens Week to be held from 2nd September to 4th September, saw over 250 male models participating for the auditions, at The Grand, New Delhi.

A score of talent heated up competition and the atmosphere was very tense and quiet for the entire models. The criteria for selection was based on confidence, attitude and physique.The esteemed jury consisted of Ashish Soni, Aparna Bahl, Gautam Kalra, Jamal Shaikh, Namrata Joshipura, Naveen Ansal and Rohit Bal were for the selection of the 20 best male model with 5 feet 11inches and above. The applicants for the model auditions had a large representation from Mumbai, Delhi, Chandigarh, Jaipur and Pune.

Buoyed by the success of the 2nd edition, Mr. Sunil Sethi, President, FDCI said, “Van Heusen India Mens Week 2011 provides young male models an opportunity to prove their talent. The number of participants wanting to associate with Men’s week is increasing every year, making VHIMW one of the largest platforms for talent identification and recognition. The event will not only witness participation from the best fashion designers of India but also bring the best from the modeling industry. For the first time we will be choosing over 20 debutant models, which is relatively a large number.”

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Especially during the monsoons and any other défavorables weather conditions we do remember the most essential element of our habillage, that is, the shoe. In fact, it was inventé during the monsoon season to safeguard the human feet and also to circumvent mud in the king’s court en 16th century in Mesopotamia.

For all shoe-lovers a must read is ‘Fifty Shoes that changed the World’ published by the Design Museum, that traces l’histoire of shoes industrie and highlights 50 brands that had lead to an revolution in the sabot-de-frein industrie.

Parmi tous, Sourendra Kumar Das delves into the pages du livre et bring for you 5 must have à-la-mode shoe styles for every fashionista –

All Star Basketball Shoe
Today this shoe has gone way beyond the basketball pitch that it was originally created for and is one of the iconic and versatile examples of twentieth century footwear design in modern times. It was créé almost a century back in 1917 in Massachusetts and it transcends fashion categories and genres aujourd’hui.

Crocs Shoes
Ce chaussures are a product of this century and came into existence only in 2002 as outdoor boating shoes but grandi to have an all-out cult like fan following. Fun colours and the light weight comfort that comes from its uniques Crocslite technology makes it an anytime and anywhere vêtements of all age groups. Crocs have grown beyond the chunky clogs that still remain their classic unique style. Today it has diversifies into various styles across categories without compromising on its promise of quality or comfort.

Slingback Sandals
These emerged as the latest thing in the 1930s and has revisited ever since by both haute-couture designers and mainstream manufacturers. During the wartime, it was hit by Shaftesbury shoes and latter became an item of luxury post war years. The shoe lends itself both to casual and dress occasions and can be slipped on to the feet without the need of fiddling with the strap or buckle, making it most desirable.

Stilettos
The piercingly pointed shoe heel that emerged after World War II was the must have apparel of every self-respecting female fatale. The heel style can be dated back to the 18th century and it was reformulated in the 1950s by française dessinateur Roger Vivier. This has become one of the most essential parts of a woman’s wardrobe in modern times.

Flip flops
This started out as an affordable option in developing countries and latter took the world by storm merely by the comfort it offered. It has a distinguished pedigree that stretches back to the Japanese rice-straw sandals known as ‘Zori’. Flip-flops are also popular with those who enjoy being barefoot but need to wear shoes, because they allow the foot to be out in the open but still constitute a shoe for wear in places such as restaurants or on city streets, and can be quickly and easily removed. They are also popular because they are easy to carry and come in an assortment of colors and patterns.

So, cette mousson you know what ensembles preeminent for your feet – Aller à venir et explore le monde of shoes…

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Two graduates, Azusa Murakami and Alexander Groves of UK’s Royal College of Art lately made a 100% biodegradable collection of sustainable fashion eyewear exploring the potential of Human hair. The collection of glasses where frames are made of human hair is named ‘Hair Glasses’.

It comprises of human hair with bio resin as a binding agent, the frames are 100% biodegradable and no harmful substances are released during production. It explores how the booming production of hair extensions can be expanded beyond the beauty industry to make other commodities that are equally desirable.

Though this isn’t the only hairy trend we’ve spotted of late, necklaces made of human hair, have previously witnessed it but the glasses are definitely a more viable option. One would never know from looking at them—a more than passable tortoiseshell effect is achieved by weaving black, blonde, and brown strands together in an intricate pattern.

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Couturier duo Ashima Leena is set to enthrall all and sundry at the upcoming Delhi Couture Week 2011 with its collection titled, ‘The Revival of a lost Charm’.

The collection has a vintage Indian soul, harking back to a time when seduction was a fine art, a slow, thrilling attack on the senses, when cupid could strike through a mere glance beneath kohl-rimmed lashes, without revealing an inch of skin, evoking a lover’s poetic longing, rather than provoking the physical. The wearer connects to the soul of a long forgotten ‘adaa’, when skin and bling did not rule… thus enhancing her innate elegance and classic sophistication.

Inspired by the’ Zenana’ women, the swish of their voluminous robes, the gentle tinkle of ghungroos, the rich gleam of jewels shining through delicate odhanis,

these garments are a sensual delight, gossamer thin silks combined with the mellowed richness of old gold brocades, muted brights, refined and restrained over and over again. Layering is in focus here-sheer fabrics overlapping colour over colour, texture over texture, intermingling to create stunning beauty.

Similarly silhouettes are layered, peshwaz over ghagras, drapes over churidars and khadadupattas wrapped over ensembles. The colours cross into one another seamlessly, gorgeous Indian pinks moving into antique peachy rose, soft blues, soothing greens, regal mauves and deep reds combined with creamy beiges, wonderful, old weaves, exquisite jaamdanis and kimkhaabs, are artistically fused into each garment as patterns of ancient havelis come alive in age old zardozi techniques, distressed to give a vintage feel, allowing both colour, fabric and form to complement one another.

Each piece is lovingly crafted with a great attention to detail, exemplified by many tiny jhumkis sewn on to the clothes, trembling with every movement.

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The designer remains one of those few designers who have chosen…

The ‘intelligent look’ is quite rampant this season – ‘He’ is the guy who wakes up from the bed with an attitude and goes out de-tous-côtés carrying l’same. One of the fashion houses that values and stocks the apparels fit for the ‘intelligent look’ is Jack & Jones in Bandra, Mumbai.

The new era of intelligent brings upscale jeans, starting with a clean and lean look that is sleek and slim-fit. There is an indie utility approach where checks are the new stripes as a trait worth tracking, plus the digital look with vector graphics and pixilation that portrays an artistic expression of one’s individuality.

The brand is mainly targeted for younger and fashion conscious men. “The brand is from Denmark and we have kept the prices and standards uniform in every nation. The stores in Denmark, China, India and elsewhere are unerringly the same to meet the exigences of the fashion lovers, reflecting the newest modern trends,” revealed Abhinav Zutshi, brand head of Jack & Jones – India.

In the store, the style swings to digital genes, where the look is artistic and prints are more like photocopy pixilation. The photo print technique is a key trend this season, inspired by the kinds of items you would find in a scrapbook. The graphics are dramatic, using scribbles, retro Dymo writing and stencils for style statements. Apple green and velvet blue bring contrast to variations on grey, black and white. Windbreakers are worn over tees which see full-frontal vector graphics. Grey jeans have a subtle sheen, and knits are even nicer with repeated patterns that appear like an optical illusion si-ce-n’est they are real.

Indigo is definitely their blood. “We continue to innover authentic solutions to what initially began as jeans, and have since become a fashion phenomenon of more than merely jeans. Jeans wear has evolved into a cultural icon of all things cool. Have a look at our Autumn/Winter 2011 collection and you’ll soon see why. It’s new and it’s still too hot,’ signs off Zutsi.

The range starts from $15 and goes up to $250, making it pocket-friendly for all. So, this weekend, you know where to take your beau for a à-la-mode shopping that is destined to be one shopping experience!

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Coco Chanel once famously said that women who don’t wear perfume have no future. So carrying the legacy of fashion genius, the label unveils its latest fragrance, Chanel N0 19 Poudre.

Prepared by Chanel’s Perfumer Jacques Polge, the new No 19 unites the latest technology advances of musks and the

best that can be achieved in a good artisanal way. Along with several interesting musks, Iris is the main ingredient of the fragrance which is quite hard to source and process and takes years to finally materialize all unadulterated.

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A contemporary designer with modern sensibilities, Anuradha Vakil is one of the India’s most unlikely designers, infusing life into often neglected craft forms, introducing new design idioms, revitalizing and motivating the craftsmen to break away from the mundane.

The designer remains one of those few designers who have chosen to work with handcrafted textiles. Deeply passionate about her work, she creates contemporary fashion using indigenous skills. Born in England, brought up in India and studied in USA. But, after returning to India with a MBA degree, she did the unthinkable and turned to fashion, a choice inspired purely by her love for Indian handlooms. Her label ‘Anuradha Vakil’, now is synonymous with artistic, one-of-a-kind Indian clothing and is available at prestigious design houses in India and abroad.

Apart from her training in classical music and dance, Anuradha’s sense of aesthetics has been shaped by her exposure, not only to fashion, but all things artistic in very early age. And, Noor, her design firm which came in to being eight years back is an evidence of her passion for textile crafts and everything having smell the chastity of art.

Long back Anuradha chose to work with hand woven natural fiber fabrics and travelled extensively in her search for the unusual and beautiful. The journey still continues as she works with master weavers and crafts people in most textile centers, which range from Kalamkari hand painters in Kalahasthi, Andhra Pradesh to Bandhani karigars in Mundra. She designs Indian wear, which has a timeless feel to it and her clothes are very simply cut, as the focus is always on the textile: the weave, the print, the craft. She designs for a woman who has a finely tuned sense of aesthetics, someone who is as committed and passionate about things created by hand.

Predictably, she has a clientele from the fields of arts, theatre and design. Being an ardent lover of Indian classical music and kathak, she doesn’t really mind her clothes being labeled ‘arty’. She knows that her clothes are not meant for every one and she prefers it that way. People like Shabana Azmi and Mallika Sarabhai are among her fiercely loyal clients.

You can get Anuradha’s designs at:

www.anuradhavakil.com

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“The most resistant element is neither cement, nor wood, nor stone, nor steel, nor glass. The most resistant material in construction is art.” Gio Ponti

La Triennale di Milano is pleased to present an exhibition devoted to Gio Ponti and his work curated by Germano Celant in collaboration with the Gio Ponti Archives and the Gio Ponti’s heirs, to celebrate one of the indisputable masters of the twentieth century in his city.

In addition to being one of the first global architects of the twentieth century, with buildings constructed and designed by him in Italy and Europe, as well as outside Europe from Hong Kong to Denver, and Baghdad to Caracas, and San Paolo to New York, Ponti is also a designer with international recognition as a renowned theoretician and architecture critic. His curiosity and genius produced the magazine Domus and the historic publication Stile, which were concretizations of his larger commitment to seeking the relationship between architecture and the arts, including their promotion and exhibition, that emerged in the creation of the First Triennale di Milano in 1933 and in the coordination of many of the subsequent editions.

Through more than 250 sketches, drawings, paintings and sculptures, ceramics and majolicas, furniture and study models the exhibition draws attention to Ponti’s rich and complex creativity that began in the 1920s with his position as artistic director of the company Richard Ginori and unraveled for around seventy years in the field of architecture, industrial design, traditional and artistic production, as well as research and communications in the field of the arts. In this composite universe, an attempt is made to render Ponti’s presence in Milan symbolically explicit through some sketches and mock-ups for the first Montecatini building (1936-1938), for the Torre Pirelli (19561961), for the Church planned for the Ospedale San Carlo (1961-1965), among others.

The architect’s contribution to his city is completed by the review of Italian and international projects with particular focus on the Italy-America axis, through Ponti’s work dedicated to the furnishings of ocean liners, as well as his citation of the Casement window, a new type of window frame realized between 1953 and 1954, intended as an homage to Philip Johnson and produced as a prototype by the New York firm Altamira.

Ties with the United States are also afoot with architectonic commissions realized or planned, from the Time & Life Building Auditorium in New York (1959) to the Denver Art Museum (1971), to Los Angeles Cathedral, which join noteworthy exhibitions in the exhibition such as the Primo Palazzo Montecatini in Milan (1936), the Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Stockholm (1954), the San Carlo Church in Milan (1966) and the Gran Madre Cathedral in Taranto (1970).

The exhibition installation by Studio Cerri e Associati of Milan is the fruit of the collaboration between museums and public and private collections.Posted by : Amal Kiran Jana from Milan at 02:21 PM

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Fashion Conditioned

Monthly Archives: July 2011

Debonair on the Runway

La Saga De Shoes

Hair Glasses

Ashima Leena for DCW 2011

Anuradha Vakil

L’Intelligence Look

Chanel No 19 Poudre

Anuradha Vakil

Expressions of Gio Ponti