Ashish's Own Brand of Feminism

Every now and then, there is a designer who becomes your favorite. You like him because of what he does, because of the way he carries himself, sometimes because of the way he interacts with you and a lot of times because of his charm. For Ashish has always been that designer. He is genuine, extremely talented and absolutely brilliant with his craft.

Each season that comes by, I wait to see what will be bring forth and long to sit through his show. His sense of structure and the finish with the classic understated appeal is for me, forever. This season he tried to reinvent his woman. She was more of a 'man' in her appearance, sporting men's spectacles and wearing clothes with sharp cuts with a color palette of predominantly black...the detailing was in the manner of delicate weaves and the tailoring with more emphasis on structure and cuts.

 

If I sound like am almost gushing about him, well I AM..and he of all people deserves it!

Rumour Has It!

I love Manish Arora!

I have always thought Manish Arora is class apart from the Indian Fash Frat. He can actually think different and do a presentation which many havn't on Indian runways. A season ago I had even heard rumors that he was perhaps going to be the first Indian designer to be taken over by the fashion giant LVMH. And then the bubble bust apparently.

It was recession and Manish did all color presentation, in Europe. His whacky sense of fashion played off the Euro market, only that no one bought color that season. And then I heard from someone that he was now broke. Apparently he only survived this season because Amby Valley became his sponsor for the show in Paris.

Manish didnt even show in India!

These are all rumors ofcourse, but then rumors too begin from some little truth dont you think?

Nimirta & Umesh

I love going to young designer's shows. For a simple reason, they're fresh, have newer ideas and sometimes are just brilliantly talented! But this time there were these two youngsters who seem to have put on a show to entertain only for themselves, because for some reason the world was ending and they HAD because it was absolutely essential they do!


I can't understand the Mumbai based designer Nimirta Lalwani. What was it, that she was trying to say through her clothes? I suppose the fact that she was completely spaced out and it was a last minute decision to do the show? Blank outfits, bad fits, bad structuring and to top it really loud sequins! Lalwani should just stay at home and look at her work and perhaps hone in what she wants to do with herself. It's all about that little extra effort which is needed to to introspect and see what your purpose in life really is, having lots of money and putting on a show to torture people isn't a good idea I'd say!

And then there was Umesh Vashisht. I had last season though to myself, that the boy seems to have some potential, only I think I said it too soon. He successfully quashed my opinion of him. Looking at his clothes, the first thing I thought to myself was, seems like a nautical theme with all the ships stuck to the models heads, but then what next? NOTHING it seemed! Apparently sticking ships and then doing a couple of outfits in white and blue is as far as his imagination went, in terms of what a nautical theme could be.

SIGH!

The Torture

It's very interesting how the Indian Fashion Weeks seem to have these good for nothing designers, showcasing the country's talent. Take for example the case of the disgusting duo: Pravesh & Jai.

I have absolutely no idea who gave them an entry into the fashion week? Not only the collection was particularly bad (swimwear!) they even topped that a screechy presentation of Shibani Kashyap(the Queen of fugly) on the runway. Out came on after the other absolutely rubbish and the garments made no sense whatsoever. Instead of the fashion week, it was more like I was sitting in the middle of lajpat nagar thrift shops with pesky lingerie.

I wondered to myself who gives them the entry? Every year there is a big show about how there is an independent jury who selects designers and that there are some extreme stringent measures which are put in place to check such rubbish. And yet guys like P&J slip through the mesh easily. But thats not all, the very next day they are even featured prominently in Times of India!!!(well that can perhaps be excused, since quite clearly they had bought the space on MediaNet)Cant help but wonder, if its just a case of innocuous mistake or if there is 'more than just connections' involved!

Fashion Week Ends

Another edition of the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week ended last night. For most people am a permanent fixture at these events, owing to the fact that I've been to so many of them and also because I happen to know way too many of the Indian fashion fraternity.

But it was last night that the idea of this blog germinated in my mind, looking around the people and the usual crowd, everyone wanted to know just one single thing...what happened to FASHION? Why was there none at the event? Why were most of these designers selected? How? Do they even sell? Some of them I have to admit were so bad, that it was a pain to even sit through their show and then there were some who did the same old thing, repackaging stale wine. And then were the pièce de résistance of the event> the minuscule minority who were pushed into bad time slots, bad choreography and silly models, but had the spark to pull through and show some interesting fashion. Only, too little and too late.

No one ever writes about the agony it is to watch some of the lamest designs in the world or the real story behind this world of quicksand. And will be my endeavor to write. To tell these stories, with names and no mincing or sugar-coating of words.

So for all the gossip and behind the scene stories, keep reading...