Designers Who Rocked India Couture Week 2016
Royal. Mesmerizing. Extravagant. These words hardly do any justice when we talk about the latest India Couture Week held recently. ICW witnessed opulent craftsmanship from India's finest and eminent designers. With the lavish setup, the 5-day exorbitant show was awe-inspiring and left the whole audience enthralled. Designers to put forward their Autumn/Winter collection starting from Manish Malhotra on 20th July, Anita Dongre, Tarun Tahiliani, Reynu Tandon, Rimple & Harpreet Narula, Rahul Mishra, Anamika Khanna, Varun Bahl, Gaurav Gupta, Manav Gangwani with Rohit Bal ending the endeavour on 24th July. The spectacular week celebrated art and culture from around the world and had its prominent inspirations in their designs. We saw connoisseurs of fashion in the front row covering all the action from the show. We've picked up few of our favourites from the show! Take a look...
1.Manish Malhotra's Persian Story
The grandeur of ICW 2016 began with Manish Malhotra's Persian story. Malhotra's collection was inspired by the breathtaking architecture of Persia, fearless royals that ruled their vast kingdoms. His spell bounding couture mostly had hues of the earthy colours of brown, maroon and red with few pieces in the shades of blue. What garnered eyes of everyone was the design of his blouses. Predictably, the highlights of the show were the show stoppers- Deepika Padukone and Fawad Khan. Fawad wore a long jacket with a monogram and a maroon wrapped tunic and looked believable as a Persian king. Deepika Padukone looked absolutely resplendent in glittering red lehenga with heavy gold embroidery. And yes, they totally stole the show! His couture involved sheer and velvet fabrics adorned with gold embroidery.
2.Anita Dongre's Bohemian Love
The Bohemian collection is what the remarkable designer Anita Dongre opted for. Her muses were the young gypsy brides and the collection was bright and whimsical infused with Gota Patti, dabka and phulkari creations. She brought alive the Mughal artwork with her chintz-inspired prints. Focusing on the new age high-spirited brides, her Indian Bridal intricate work had hues of cream, rusts, browns, reds, muted blue and pink. Her collection had the ethnic, rustic and soothing look about them. The vintage Mughal era inspired collection included long skirts, variance in blouses, dupattas, achkans and kurtas for men. For the girls who love to wear ethnic with an edgy touch, Anita added pockets to the lehengas and we are still crushing on it!
3.Anamika Khanna's Flower Power
Anamika Khanna stood the time still with her mesmerizing collection. Her collection had models donning ensembles embellished with 3D flowers stitched to lehengas, palazzos, sequined jackets and long trailed anarkali pant-saris glammed up with statement jewelry pieces consisting of precious stones. She played with hues like white, beige, gold salmon pink, celadon green, fiery red, black and yellow. The collection also saw a wide use of heavy embellishments, sequined work, hand weaves and intricate gold embroidery work on her collection.
4.Varun Bahl's Vintage Garden
Vintage art won the ICW this year! Varun Bahl reinvented floral vintage collection for the contemporary Indian women. Using floral prints and a versatile colour palette, ace designer Varun Bahl showcased his 'Vintage Garden' collection using fabrics like silk, georgette, and chiffon. Sophisticated colors, textures, and patterns mixed with baroque influence are perfect for women who are fashion-forward and feminine. He said "The Indian woman today is a non-conformist when it comes to her sartorial choices. Our collection is all about giving her the option to let her global sensibilities shine through with her traditional wear," said the designer. He chose hues from soft pastels like pistachio, duck-egg blue and pale pink to stronger tones like mustard, fuchsia and black while the ensemble was embellished with heavy embroidery. The male models sported white achkans, Nehru jackets, kurtas and churidars with flowers embroidered all over.
5.Gaurav Gupta's Ruffle Twirl
As usual, Gaurav Gupta made us go gaga over his unusual silhouettes mixed with a lot of drapes and intelligent construction! Needless to mention, the multi-layered high waist skirts and classic silhouettes with a modern twist made the collection stand out. His collection was an amalgamation of different layers, ruffles and vintage colours like grey, green, brown, pastel hues of blue, white and powder pink. Experiencing new-age progressive designs, he aptly blended the not-so-basic designs with fluid drapes. Actress Saiyami Kher, who will soon be seen in filmmaker Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s film “Mirzya”, made her debut on the ramp for his collection.
6.Manav Gangwani's Begum-e-Jannat
Another show that left the audience spellbound! The Queen of Bollywood Kangana Ranaut was the showstopper for him and looked every inch a Mughal empress from his latest collection titled Begum-e-Jannat. She kept her makeup minimalistic and wore a ravishing maroon choli with mirror work paired with a heavily embroidered lehenga and mesh dupatta. Manav's collection captured the era of the Mughals and the royal age effortlessly with flowing kaftans, intricately designed lehengas, flamboyant saris and classic sherwani in shades of ivory, black, navy, green, maroon and white which saw intricate work of zardozi. The designer used fabrics such as luxurious silk velvet, sheer gauzy tissues, regal silk and tulle sprinkled with stunning mirror work.
7.Rohit Bal's Cultural Blend
Connoisseur of luxury fashion wear Rohit Bal blended Indian and Russian culture for his collection at ICW 2016. We saw a wide array of beautiful hues moving from white, black and wine. He experimented with heavily embellished motifs which ranged from birds to florals. The accessories were eye-catching too! Another highlight was the use of bejewelled headgear seen on male and female models which resembled those worn by the Czars and the Czarinas from Russia. He showcased more than 25 heavily embroidered and bejewelled ensembles featuring silhouettes ranging from floor sweeping anarkalis, majestic lehengas, dramatic robes, ravishing gowns, elegant Jodhpuri pants and jackets.
Well, you've now got options for weddings! :)
