Fusion wear is catching up in the steel city

Jamshedpur, Sept. 15: Meenakshi wanted to make her marriage a memorable one. And the first thing she had in mind was doing away with the old beaten league of wearing the traditional wedding dress.

With the help of her designer friend, she worked out a totally new outfit for the ceremonies that were to follow soon.

A heavily sequinned maroon blouse with a plain long skirt sporting a single panel of embroidery across the front pleat was the outfit that caught her fancy. And it sure did leave people talking about it.

Women and men, nowadays, are going in for fusion wear.

?The metros had picked up the Indo-western concept some time ago but it is refreshing to see Jamshedpur residents becoming fashion conscious and picking up new trends,? said Chandralekha, a faculty with National Institute for Fashion Designing (NIFD).

By the displays in the showrooms in upmarket Bistupur it becomes clear that Indo-western outfits have caught the residents? attention.

?Be it ethnic tops with formal trousers or a simple denim koti with a casual lehenga (casual skirt), they have caught the fancy of the buyers, especially clients who strive to keep up with the trend,? said Kamal Nagelia, proprietor, Ashok Vatika. A yellow top done in net with a black border sporting ethnic parsee embroidery worn with black trousers and a stole goes well on all occasions, be it a formal function or even a ?very Indian? wedding.

?This is just one of the options which had been heavily in demand, but there are various alternatives that are being tried out nowadays, the latest being the casual lehenga with the traditional Jaipuri ?cibori? print. The long skirts have caught the fancy of buyers mostly due to the recent Bollywood flicks with actresses in long skirts,? said Nagelia.

While some of these skirts come in chunari prints, some have elaborate mirror work done on them.

?The traditional look of the skirt has attracted college-going girls and even young executives. They prefer to double it with a kurti, making the entire outfit extremely hip. An intricately embroidered kurti can be worn with a plain long skirt, a blend of ethnic and modern, which gives a smart look,? Chandralekha said.

Apart from sequins and mirror work, kundan and crystals are also being largely used in Indo-Western outfits.

?Customers like to experiment with all sorts of textile ? from gorgette to chiffon, and from pure crepes to handloom ? everything is being used in these outfits. Cotton will be an all-time favourite but now buyers are venturing into varying textiles. Even cuts and collars, till now associated with western outfits, are being largely used,? Chandralekha said.

She added that blouses for lehengas have started sporting collars and kimono cuts.

?Even saris today are being worn with halter neck blouses or tops made of denim with embroidery, embedded beads and stones. Some saris are even being worn with blouses with kutch work or simply put mirrored blouses,? said Chadralekha.

Fashion gurus and enthusiasts believe that the look of an Indo-western outfit is enhanced by the use of a stole, the richer cousin of a scarf.

?Stole is a fairly new concept in the city, so it hasn?t been able to create a market niche yet. It will take some time but like Indo-western outfits caught the fancy of the buyers, so will the stole,? Nagelia said.