Bright colours still rule the South Indian fashion ramp during Myntra’s Bangalore fashion week-winter 2014. The bridal season collections were all centralised and themed around the strength and power of a woman. Models graced the fashion ramp with collections inspired by powerful mythological characters and mogul era patterns with a mix of indo-western cuts and prints.
Goddess Athena of Greek Mythology that represented power and guidance to her followers was transformed into bold war like armour of jewellery in Vrindaa Ashwani’s collection. Floral breast plates that protect the heart were twirled around the neck and golden shoulder guards were stitched onto elegant black and grey net silhouettes.
According to Ashwani, after destruction came creation. A person then finds a reason for their existence and then fights for it. Dionne Claudette Alves collection was inspired by warring characters from the popular Game of Thrones show. A more sexy and sultry look with elegant colour blocked capes, jackets and collars were made of velvet and silk. Buckled up leather bra-lets, zipper pants were teamed with ruffl ed, fl owing gowns in pure colours. Lalit Dalmia’s sensuous collection of gowns and cocktail dresses was inspired by Helen of Troy. The gowns had a red carpet look with blacks and greens teamed with nets and lycras. Inspired by Helen’s power of seduction, Dalmia used shimmering modern colours that flowed along the curves of the female models along with floral and greek patterned embellishments.
FABRIC FUSION
Shivali Singh’s collection was a fusion of floral lace, nets, metal embellishments along with chiffons and satins. Embroidered gold pipings and fl oral stitches on one shoulder gowns as well as metallic gold and silver embellished bra – lets were some of the show stopping attires. Ramesh Dembla’s Sheer Ecstasy collection was a fusion of nets, chiffons and tissues of black with a hint go red, blue, purple and gold. Going contemporary, the collections had lycra pants with fl owing lace khurtas, vibrant hues of red velvets and heavy red sequined neck Chinese collars. Dembla’s gowns were mostly nets with shiny sequined embroidery and Spanish styled ruffl ed tails. His menswear collection also had a lot of nets and tissues along with embroidered sleeves and collars. Mandeep Litt’s model’s wore a combination of traditional fabrics like georgette and velvet with embroidered shoulder and collars. He used pure crepe, Mysore velvet and nets in his collections which had a mix of Indian and Western attire. The menswear had lengths of velvet drapes with gold embroidered and red pipings teamed with velvet jackets on traditional motif khurtas. Kamal Raj Manickath’s collection was also a fusion of georgettes, silks, nets, cut laces, block pleating with different styles of draping.
PERSIAN AND MOGUL ERA
Pria Kaataria Puri’s luxury resort wear was based on the perception of Persian artists who trotted the globe. The collection was more centred on the woman traveller who also yearns for the luxury of her home. Saris, crop tops, halter necks and tunics in vibrant colours in Italian silks were printed in India. Ruchi and Shipra’s collections revolved around the architectural motifs from Mogul period. Intricate embroidery, motifs and embellishments were typical of the Mogul window carvings on silks, brocades, textured fabrics, georgettes and nets. Kalanjali’s traditional inspired collection was an exotic combination of Pcohampalli weaves, Gujarat’s Katch work, Chikkangari along with modern blends of fabrics. Aslam Khan used only natural fabrics in his collections.
BLACK AND WHITES
Debarun Mukherjee brought together a collection of black and white in contemporary Indian wear. Tribal motifs on long suits and crop tops made from the weavers of Bengal, Debarun used mostly georgettes, silks and cottons. Black and white saris with pop art caricatures, shirt dresses with traditional motifs were common at his show. He also teamed a hint of red, turquoise blue, yellows and green in his black gowns, kaftans and short backless dresses.
LACE, NETS AND MIRRORS
Bridal season is not complete without nets and fl oral cut laces used on white wedding gowns, evening wear as well as traditional lehangas. Snipped ruffled lace bra-lets were teamed with lehangas and draped nets in Kamal Raj Manickath’s collection. Floral cut lace gowns sequined crocheted corsets on wedding gowns were very popular. Archana Kochharr’s traditional wedding collection had strong colour blocks of reds, blacks, gold and orange hues with golden floral embroidery teamed with heavy mirror work. Inspired by Kaleere, the mungal sutra at Punjabi weddings, Neema Kumar’s collections sported models with net khurtis lehangas teamed with silks, georgettes, brocade, crepe, chiffon. She made a lot of emphasis on embroidery siting the latest trends of wearing less accessories with light weight fabrics. Sonia and Ria Joy’s collection had vibrant coloured floral nets with flowing gowns of crepe, cotton blends teamed with floral prints.
COLOUR BLOCKS
Abhinandana Shetty’s models sported florescent blocks of pinks, yellows on 3 dimensional floral patterns. Amita Gupta used the prominent bright red and gold colour in her bridal collection. Babita Jain’s halter neck gowns with traditional motifs were colour blocked with red, purple, gold, turquoise blue, emerald greens, pink with hints of lace and embroidery on georgettes as well as net fabrics.
