As the Diwali shopping keeps us busy, some are already geared up and busy interpreting the trends for Spring Summer 2011. The recently concluded Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week SS ’11 welcomed on shore a few anticipation and a lot fresh colours and silhouettes for the spring.
The silhouettes that have an accentuated attention on the hour-glass conduct just above the knee hemline. Inspite of the levels and love of geometric precision observed in ample creations trapeze also sketched strong outlines. Transparency and see through layering announces widespread application. Designers Anand Kabra and Samant Chauhan envision the patches of fabric as building blocks and played intently with single rectangular unit in its placement. Rishta by Arjun and Morphe claim an adeptly different outlook as the intense use of cording suggest the silhouette in the indigo outfit by Rishta and raw white ensemble by Morphe.
The country side floral print in easy flow drapes weave out of cotton, linen and chanderi this spring. Sometimes the flowers come in washed effect prints as visible in the collection of Anita Dongre and whereas it even takes three dimensional floral forms in saturated hues to get beautifully sewed on like flower basket as in the creation of Koga. On contemplation, Rahul Mishra’s collection would not necessarily fall in the floral category but the way he has picked just one flower motif, the lotus, kept it homogenous throughout the collection while playing around with pleating, sheer layering, and doris in traditional and yet contemporary style is commendable. Manish gupta achieves geometric flowers with piping and cording on the baked lime colour shift dress.
Pop art is another popular theme for the coming season with the young and the established designer strike a liking for it simultaneously. Leading the brigade is Dev r Nil with his omni present Che Guevara prints on vegetable dyed and batik fabric. Nida Mahmood’s ensemble sure has the barood and potential of machis (as she calls her collection) with the busy poster prints in warm hues juxtaposed all over the jodhpur pants held by a suede belt and waist-shirt. Prashant Verma’s cosmic explosion digital prints on straight sheath gowns with shoulder pads convey tecno invasion. And walnut goes bubblegum with neon colour splash print, short dresses.
The black and white never go out of fashion but this season is also profusely of the greys. The contrasts come together in zealous as the yin and yan unison in the creation of Ashish N Soni, articulate cutouts and peep through treatment to let the other colour seep on the primary. Nandita Basu creates punched holes on a leather high waist skirt paired with sleeveless white shirt in stylized peter pan collars. The little perfect hour-glass black dress with a bow has prominent see through chiffon yoke. And the ensemble by Rimjhim Dadu covers the entire white dress with a sheer black fabric which comes across together as a grey dress.
The tribal or vagabond flavours have always raised fancy in summer wardrobe. Thus this time again a lot of stylized animal prints, tribal motif, urban patch work, lungi drapes infuse the summers. Here is Charu Parashar’s direct influence of tribal warfare with bright accent of orange and blue. Geisha designs translate striped patch work on contemporary silhouettes. The traditional dyeing techniques mixed to pronounce loose pyjamas and trapeze tops in the creation by Priyadarshini Rao. And Tarun Tahiliani’s Rajashthan influence provokes a creation in sand colours and lungi drapes.
The runway this season also witnessed a strong influx of hand-woven textiles some with new innovation and some reviving the age old traditional weaves. Wendell weaved an absolute fabric fantasy with reviving the hand-woven techniques of kunbi tribe of Goa. Akaaro has the subtle luxury of new innovation and experimentation with hand-woven fabrics. Cell DSGN equally played more with fabric and textile value thus creating drape style with high slit in grey and indigo. Virtues as always had an array of dabka prints and bandhini techniques well placed on contemporary silhouettes.
