Fashion week finales are usually a grand affair. But Anamika Khanna took grandeur to a whole new level at her grand finale of Lakme Fashion Week Summer/Resort 2018 in Mumbai on February 4. It wasn’t about opulent set and ornate decor. The grandeur was in the sheer scale and the powerful vibe that the show packed.
The Bandra Fort — an old Portuguese fort with all its natural rock formations, split over several levels, and full of greenery — defined the show’s character. Drummers with their loud throbbing beats and a group of dancers who performed through the show, lending a sense of constant movement, set the tone for the evening.
Anamika had told t2 at the preview of her finale line that this was going to be her most experimental collection till now. It was experimental and how!
An interpretation of Lakme’s beauty statement of the season — Nudes Reinvented — the collection saw reinvention at various levels. Starting off with nudes and finishing with blacks, there were several other stories in between — reds, pastels, patchwork, black-and-white, with an underlying powerful tribal African vibe throughout the sequences. Deconstruction was the keyword in the silhouettes.
The finale over and done with, Anamika was a picture of calm when we met for breakfast at her Alipore home on Thursday morning. “It’s over and that’s what matters,” she smiled. Over a breakfast of beans on toast, poha, sprouts, beetroot juice and multiple cups of tea, Anamika took us through the putting-together of her “most emotional show till now”...
YOU know, when we decided that we were going to do this, the first thing I had in my head is — I have been feeling a bit of fashion fatigue… what is new? What new do we have to offer? When they (Lakme) said ‘nudes reinvented’, the word ‘reinvented’ just got stuck in my head. How am I going to reinvent... in terms of how we present… how do I bring that power and energy that I want to portray? And how do I keep it so diverse that the collection can’t be typified and said that it is for this person? How do I keep it young?
One very big inspiration was the young generation. The millennials that I have been talking about lately. How they do their thing… they might not be picking up an entire ensemble, they might just pick up a part of an outfit and make it their own. That’s what I wanted to do here — to make it super versatile so that you don’t have to be stuck in an Anamika Khanna from top to bottom. You can take a jacket and wear it with your jeans, you can make it day, you can make it evening. And this whole idea of diversity is what we started with.
DECONSTRUCTION & DISHEVELMENT
The collection went through various phases, starting with the nudes and finishing with the blacks. Even in the nudes, I knew everyone’s going to expect these flowy things and capes and sheers and this and that. You know what, I am going to push the boundaries, it might not be so saleable, it might not have commercial value so much, although now people are reacting differently… they want to wear these clothes (smiles).
So we worked with a lot of dishevelment, a lot of deconstruction. But we always kept the fact that the collection is for this country, you know it’s important to identify. So we developed a lot of different ways of wearing the same outfit… different collaborations of the sari, different interpretations of the skirt, or even the lehnga for that matter. Every time we would do something, I was like that’s what we would normally do, so let’s not do it. So each piece we went through that same journey.
My choreographer told me, do this collection like you would wear it… and that’s what stuck with me. So for once I would be wearing each and every piece… normally I just pick out something from a collection, but this collection I would be wearing everything. The fear of such a long show (with 60 pieces being showcased) is that people get bored, that’s why we kept the variation and the unpredictability, so that people did not know what to expect next.
THE DIVERSITY
The nudes were more deconstructed than the rest, because I didn’t want them to go in the pretty space. I wanted them to be in the strong space. How do you take something that is nude in colour and stop it from looking like an evening gown or something that is ethereal and pretty? From the nudes I moved on to pastel shades with patchwork. Again, when you say pastel, you think pretty. But I was like no, the whole show I am going to go with this one feeling that is powerful.
Then we moved on to this more eclectic tribal space, then the black-and-whites, there was a red sequence and then we finished with blacks. The red was there to create the drama of the red against the black dancers… that red skirt which was completely tattered and torn (centre in picture right) was a risk, but we were like let’s do it. The silks, organzas, cottons, muslins, stretch fabrics... we cold-pressed them to deconstruct them.
IN A TRIBAL SPACE
Then it came to the jewellery and who better than Suhani (her sister Suhani Pittie) to interpret my thoughts? I told her and she just got it in one second. I told her I don’t want a single earring, I want things coming on the face, nose bridges and septum rings… it just tied the whole thing together. The earrings were like double hoops and triple hoops… very, very inspired by the African space, but interpreted in a more modern, contemporary way.
Even the make-up… the palette is beautiful but how do you make it powerful? So we took the coral and had it splashed all over the face. The whole tribal sense, that energy and that power to come through, that’s what we were trying to do. Then the flat boots… that was my most favourite thing. You know to send them out in boots with a lehnga or even a nude long coat, I was like I’m going to get my courage, I am going to do it.
MOVEMENT & ENERGY
Then the idea of what do you do in Bandra Fort, how do you present the collection. I thought this place doesn’t need decor, you can’t decorate such a beautiful place… so I decided I want this movement and this energy to come through in the show, that’s when I got stuck with the idea of the dancers and the drummers. I told them people are not coming to watch a dance show, they are coming to watch a collaboration of movement. And when I met these people from this group (Omaggio), they understood what I was saying. Of course it took a lot of back and forth to tell them the energy and power that I wanted, but they got it.
It was a very emotional journey for us. It wasn’t just about presenting clothes, it was about a feeling that you wanted to bring out in people. Since the idea of the show came up, the idea of the dancers has been in my head. The dancers were so powerful, they danced like there’s no one watching. That’s how I want people to dress, for themselves, not to prove a point, not to show somebody else. That sense of abandonment, that sense of letting go... that it’s okay to do your thing. I always believed in it, but as I am growing up I have that feeling much more.
IT’S OKAY TO NOT FIT IN
You keep worrying about whether you’re going to fit in or not, but I am not going to worry about that… it’s okay to not fit it. That’s the only way we are going to be able to push some fashion boundaries, and go and do something new. It’s very easy to stay safe and make something very pretty and everybody is going to like it. But I guess I don’t have that safe gene in my body (laughs).
So the point is what bracket will you put me in — bridal or organic? I don’t want to be put in any bracket. After spending 20 years in fashion and working day in and day out, I might as well find my own space and I think now we are finding our space.
I am actually shocked at the reactions. A lot of people said that they’ve never experienced a show like this. A lot of people were like, what was that?! To get that kind of feedback and reactions, that’s really special. A lot of people told me how emotional they felt.
I’ve never had so much fun doing a show… that whole experience of going through what you identify with and then you are able to present it and it’s almost like a dream that you are able to live.
Text: Smita Roy Chowdhury
Pictures: Sandip Das