Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2011 kicked off April 6 morning with designer Neeru Kumar’s show (her runway debut). The key trends of the day:
Playing with fabrics and textures
Fashion designers played with fabrics to create modern silhouettes. Neeru Kumar used a mix of wool, cashmere, linen, cotton and silk to shape garments that defined a woman’s curves. Urvashi Kaur draped hand-loomed fabrics and weaves like chanderi, tussar, woven silk, self patterned linen and wool jersey added an element of surprise to the garments. Also, the mix of colour and textured fabric at Akaaro was a wonderful experimentation of weaving techniques.
Below (left to right): Neeru Kumar, Pankaj & Nidhi, Akaaro by Gaurav Jai Gupta
Colours for winter
Rehane gave their collection a warm feel with yellows and oranges, while Urvashi Kaur’s colour palette varied from indigo, violet, electric blue, lime to yellow, green and red. Geisha Designs chose colours that colours symbolising the earth’s crust—mercury grey, lava red, storm violet, sea green and Atlantic grey.
Below (left to right): Rehane, Urvashi Kaur, Geisha Designs
True to tradition
We saw traditions-inspired collections throughout the day, from Urvashi Kaur’s hand-loomed fabric and weaves like chanderi, tussar, woven silk and self patterned linen to Geisha Designs’ hand-crafted techniques like batik dyeing and crochet. Pankaj & Nidhi’s Woven Chemistry collection used the Japanese technique ‘sashiko no donza’, a form of intricate quilting and embroidery, along with other mat-like weaving technique creating garments that were strong, defined and textured. Even Mona-Pali’s very modern collection had a rustic charm.
Below: Mona-Pali
Voluminous silhouettes
From soft flowy gowns and dresses at Geisha Designs to Arjun’s A-line skirts and billowy sleeves and trousers, volume ruled the ramps. At Varun Bahl, loose ribbons around waistlines, sleeves and hems added a 3-dimensional voluminous look along with scalloped skirts, clever use of asymmetry and ballooning effect on sleeves.
Below (left to right): Arjun, Varun Bahl
