#LFW2017: Anita Dongre’s Dreamy Collection and Dreamier Set Closed The Season
The fashion circus has officially left town. The Day 5 muster of designers once again partied to the relaxed proportions in clothing, serenaded by the oh-so-familiar summer prints and colours in their Summer-Resort 2017 shows.
There couldn’t have been a worthier contender than Anita Dongre to close the Summer-Resort 2017 edition of Lakmé Fashion Week. The high-street superstar, who has single-handedly transformed the Indian retail playground, complemented the unilateral theme of casual chic looks and non-fussy evening dresses that underlined serial collections presented during a span of 5 days.
Tradition has a way of sneaking into Anita’s design process. She chose to narrate her summer story inspired by purity ofkora silks, and gota patti (appliqué embroidery synonymous with Rajasthan). Her show felt clear and compact with transitional silhouettes, an unobtrusive palette of pastel pinks, blushing peach, nudes, and aqua offset by flashes of gold, and dedicated accents on Indian textiles like chanderi, handwoven tissue and khadi, and silk organza, while chiffon and tulle fussed over zardozi, and cord details and tonal embroidered jungle motifs.
For her latest collection named Alchemy, she took the audience for a stroll around an enchanted garden-themed setting against the heritage Bandra Fort bounded by the choppy Arabian Sea. The clothes hit a pleasant dressy-casual chord, thanks to styles like bias skirts, tabards, duster coats, sheer flared crop blouses, sarees, pleated trousers, and flattering variations of A-line, wrap, shift, and kaftan dresses.
After establishing a fan following in Indian trousseau wear, Anushree Reddy made her ready-to-wear debut with her An Indian Summer collection. A welcome departure from heavy-duty bridal wear, the range of crowd-pleasers appealed to the casual destination weddings and pre-nuptial celebrations. She interwove natural fibres like buttery mulmul and light-as-air cottons with tedious badla work (flattened gold or silver wire weave) to suggest a hint of festivity on V-neck tunics, ombré dhoti-style skirts, shoulder-baring cholis, floor-scraping maxis, and off-shoulder evening gowns. You couldn’t fault the colour palette of ivory, lavender, corals, and tangerines that conjured dreams of a beach wedding.
You could almost smell the wafting floras as models, dressed in printed tunics, trapeze blouses, and summer frocks, strolled the runway holding wooden flower basket props at the Vrisa show. Almost.
Fashion cannot get any squarer and simpler than Rahul and Shikha’s (the designer duo behind Vrisa) interpretation of Persian gardens-inspired Bagh-E-Gul collection. Other clothing ideas included angarkhas, anarkalis, jackets, and boxy trousers folded at the ankle with accentuated pockets and laced hems.
Men didn’t have a reason to feel sidelined by the stronger gender. Lakmé Fashion Week’s Summer-Resort 2017 edition showcased plenty of menswear dressing options; most designers lodged a capsule range within their collections, while others like Khanijo presented an absolute menswear line-up.
A relatively new name in the fashion week roster, Gaurav Khanijo was part of the Gen-Next 2016 batch. His latest collection, Summer Sojourn gathered ideas of laidback tailoring with Safari jacket-inspired wrap jackets, high-waist pleated trousers, asymmetric jogger pants, biker jackets and bombers, jumpsuits, and long-line shirts. Grasping the innate testosterone psyche to turn their noses up at decorative clothing, Gaurav kept trimmings to the minimal, involving multiple patch pocket features, handstitched embroidery, subtle pin-tucks, and tab details on ankles.
Follow Shweta on Twitter @holysoly.
