Bollywood’s colour-blocked czarinas
Every spring summer season sees the crazy colour clash and the recently concluded Spring Summer 2020 outings at New York (NYFW) and London Fashion Weeks saw designers letting their freak flags fly high by mixing hues like never before.
Tory Burch clashed vibrant tangerine with blue and green in a tea-length dress and Longchamp sent out a block print glam-leisure dress with thigh-high slits. Labels like Roksanda Ilincic, Jeremy Scott and Christian Siriano couldn’t resist the allure of the visually delightful tone mixup. And, back home, the likes of actors Kareena Kapoor Khan, Esha Gupta and Malaika Arora were spotted in cheery colour-blocked ensembles taking a departure from the monotone dressing. Early this week, actor Deepika Padukone was seen clashing her neon green jumper with blue pants for an airport look.
Stylist Edward Lalrempuia opines that colour blocking has always been around, but this season, it has taken pronounced proportions. “It’s always good to mix hues which contrast beautifully like teaming yellow with purple. However, one needs to balance it out with something quite neutral like either grey or black unless you want to go all out. For example, a colourblocked shirt teamed with a pair of trousers or pairing a contrasting toned dress with a a blazer work well. I’d suggest coming spring summer season, be brave and embrace daring colours,” says Edward.
To avoid the predictable route, pick colours from the same family like different hues of khaki and then pair it with a different hue separately. “Don’t do textbook colour blocking and pick predictable hues. For instance, embrace shades of green and blue and play with complimentary colours, unless you want to go all pop with the ensemble,” says stylist Isha Bhansali.
The sports-driven NYFW has always had athleisure built in its DNA and the colour blocking trend takes its roots from there. Designer Aniket Satam says, “Solid primary colour blocks are striking, impactful. Also, print blocking is a key trend seen on the runways of Zimmermann and Oscar de la
Renta.”