Hindustan Times ST (Jaipur) - Hindustan Times (Jaipur) - City
Fashion vanguards defy conventions
The recently concluded Lakme Fashion Week brought to the fore a new spectacle in the fashion world. Rather than keeping it strictly commercial, a few designers defied conventions by presenting admirable avant-gardism in their shows. Runways are usually flooded with tall and slim models clad in the best of couture. However, designer Wendell Rodricks broke the rationale and went for plussize models instead, showcasing an entire collection on the untapped fashion space. Varonica Campabell, India’s first transgender plus size model, opened the show. On the last day, designer Narendra Kumar’s show featured models from all age groups. While a grey-haired man donned a mint green floral sherwani, a woman in her fifties walked wearing a tube velvet gown layered with an emerald green jacket. “The show was linked to a short movie. So we wanted to show real people look fashionable. The show revolves around a pre-wedding cocktail function and so we had the bride’s father, mother and sister. It also conveyed the message of LGBT community to the society as the bride was in an emotional turmoil and in love with a woman,” says Kumar. Huemn by designers Pranav Misra and Shyma Shetty presented a collection that highlighted how fashion waste is adding to the bleak future of our planet. “We asked designers to send in their waste fabrics. Using them we designed 10 looks, which was quite a challenge,” explains Misra. Many designers tend to ignore the cuts and silhouettes just to be a part of the bandwagon endeavouring to revive handlooms. As part of the Paramparik Karigar show, designers showcased eight creations using crafts like bagh, azrakh, bandhej and shibori. The footwear paired with the clothes was made by leftover fabrics. While international runways have been paving the way for genderless fashion for quite sometime now, the trend is fairly new on the runways in India. The Pot Plant label by designers Resham Karmchandani and Sanya Suri; Anaam by designers Sumiran Kabir Sharma, Divyam Mehta; and Antaragni pitched for genderneutral clothing at the fashion week. “We have looked at the dressing styles of the monks [with] distinct layering [and] we have tried to do our own draped and constructed version making it relevant for today’s time,” says Mehta.