the maverick
Neon whistles whistling away. Neon polka dot stickers — on the ushers and the seats — glowing away. In a country that loves comebacks, design maverick Manish Arora made a ‘comeback’ to the Indian ramp.
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The Paco Rabanne job in Paris gained and given up, the Delhi doyen wooed his home city on Day 3 of Delhi Couture Week at Taj Palace.
The whistling got deafening, as the wait got longer. A.R. Rahman’s theme music from Slumdog Millionaire (two global brands made in India — the choice of music couldn’t have been coincidental) played on loop in the background and after a delay of exactly 90 minutes, Manish Arora showed his stuff against a stunning stage dotted with fairylights.
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The stuff we are talking about is not just any stuff. It’s the best-of-the-best kind of stuff, a retrospective of Paris Fashion Week collections that he has floored the French capital with for the past five years. Now this is the kind of blast from the past that we love.
Everything that makes Manish Arora what he is was sent down the catwalk. Crazy colours, crazier silhouettes, impeccable craftsmanship, outrageous styling, avant-garde make-up and the general madness of his methods took over the senses during the presentation. As always, it was all about India — in its most OTT avatar. No one is complaining!
the magician
A day after Manish Arora, Manish Malhotra presented his unapologetically glamorous collection. The highlights...
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The film: Shot in an old bungalow off Mumbai’s Napean Sea Road, the two-minute-25-second short that opened his show starred ramp (and Force) hottie Vidyut Jamwal as groom and model Anjali Lavania as bride. So, is the designer finally finding time to direct his first feature film? “No, there’s still no time for that! Right now I’m trying to figure out how to cut down the 12 films I style a year to three or four,” Manish told t2.
The 50s show: Inspired by all things old world, both silhouettes and colours, the show was glamour, ’50s style. It opened with his signature champagnes and nudes and went on to a burst of coral and gulal pink.
“I’m slightly going away from red, but for the brides who can’t imagine a wedding without red, there is a dash of it here and there,” said Manish. His Kashmir connection, that started with Imtiaz Ali’s Rockstar, continued. Tilla work was the hero; the collection took three months to complete. The long kurtas with lehngas, a signature style from the stable, was the dominant silhouette. Lots of sexy backs, sheer layering and trailing were the other design highlights. The men wore classic bandhgalas — some with kurtas, some without. “I am not apologetic or pretentious about loving glamour,” he said. “And as I’m growing older, I’m moving away from my fave decade 70s and beginning to appreciate the 50s!” added Bolly’s fashion czar.
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The muse: Katrina Kaif is stunning. Obvious, but still essential to state! She rehearsed in a pair of black skinny jeans and a choli from the show outfit, her Mashallah abs on full display. She walked the ramp in a champagne lehnga, walking the walk and smiling that smile. Post-show, she was grilled about her marriage. “It will happen at the right time.... It’s slightly uncomfortable to be asked about it all the time,” she closed the topic.
Why Katrina? “She’s beautiful and works Indian clothes in such a modern manner... exactly the DNA of a Manish Malhotra bride — confident of herself and comfortable in her skin,” said Manish.
The front rowers: Karan Johar. Alia Bhatt. Sussanne Roshan. Shweta Bachchan. Sunanda Pushkar Tharoor. Shabana Azmi. Amaan and Ayaan Ali Khan. Kalyani Chawla. Madhur Bhandarkar.... It’s not an MM show if it’s not a power-packed front row. They hooted and cheered, clapped and whistled, and gave him some bear hugs post-show.
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KJo and Alia Bhatt: He looked like a star in a black suit. She looked like a star in a blush pink prom dress — very, very much a Student Of the Year. This was her first fashion show and who better as a mentor than her first director Karan Johar. The lucky girl got a little demo on how to preen and pout!
the DREAMER
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New Moon, a collection that brings together New York, Calcutta, Paris, Barcelona and Berlin, brought the curtains down on Delhi Couture Week on Sunday night. t2 brings you a front-row view of a finale only Sabyasachi Mukherjee could deliver.
01 The set. A hunting lodge up in the Alps, as if redecorated by Sabyasachi. The finale set of Delhi Couture Week on Sunday night at Taj Palace was stuff that makes up dreams, or the stuff that makes up Sabyasachi flagship stores. The distressed pieces of furniture, a lamp there, a stool here, sepia-tinted framed photographs and a whole lot of curios, the ramp was divided in half, French salon style.
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02 The photo op! Sridevi and her English Vinglish director Gauri Shinde, both in Sabyasachi saris. Sridevi in an ivory lehnga sari, Gauri in a simple black. The designer took the ramp with the two muses before seating them. Their respective husbands Boney Kapoor and Balki (director of Cheeni Kum and Paa) smiled on.
03 The music. It began with the most beautiful cello version of U2’s With Or Without You before moving on to the soundtrack from Madonna’s W.E, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Evita and then finally Leonard Cohen. The playlist seemed couture, made for the collection!
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04 The ode. Coco Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent. “These two designers currently reside in my head and I have many conversations with them.” Enter bows, very Chanel. Enter precise, very YSL.
05 The hair and make-up. Mickey Contractor and his team at MAC have had a busy Couture Week smoking up the eyes and glossing up the mouths but not for this show. A clean face, barely-there make-up and black bindi dot, it couldn’t have been a simpler look. The pulled-back hair, middle parting and low bun, the girls looked well, like Sabya girls.
06 The glasses. So this is where it all began. More than a decade ago, Sabya decided to make his models look ‘intellectual’ and the tag stuck — for better or for worse. This time too the girls wore glasses. “Every show I will have the models wears specs,” Sabya murmured at some point. Let’s wait and watch —with our glasses on!
07 The sequins and the sexy. What happened there you might want to ask? So much shimmer, so much shine! “When the world is moving to intellectualising fashion, it’s nice to step back and take a glamorous look at things. This collection fulfills the woman’s need to look glam, of course without compromising my principles,” said Sabya. Peek-a-backs balanced beaded bijou bodices. No skin show but just good ol’ old-fashioned sexy in the head.
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| Sridevi (centre) and her English Vinglish director Gauri Shinde, both in Sabyasachi, with the designer |
08 The monotones. Tone-on-tone was the mood of the moment. All red, all ivory, all green, textures were played around with, within the colour spectrum. Even the queen of monotone, the Duchess of Cambridge, can be imagined in some of these solid beauties. And believe it or not, some of his new lehngas are without borders!
09 The new shape. Bye-bye smock. Hello hourglass. “Some people are taking feminine away from fashion but here, everything is about tits, ass and hourglass waist,” he said at the preview. And he wasn’t exaggerating! Even the petticoats (printed chintz) were fully corseted. Body-con kurtas, super-fitted trumpet gowns, high-waist skirts, skinny bodices, it was all about accentuating the curves that maketh a woman!
10 The accessories. The designer’s “new, edgy” label, Sabyasachi by Sabyasachi that made its debut at Sotheby’s London peppered the show pretty. Rhinestone-encrusted hairbands, bangles, batuas and shoes, the add-ons were every bit as lust-worthy as the garments themselves.
