Rocky picks on 'Lolita' for inspiration

Bollywood's favourite designer chose to depart from his strongly sexy, silver screen mould and give us a new direction to Fall/Winter '06. His collection is dedicated to the modern day 'Lovely Lolitas'.

In his own words, "It is about a woman who is flirtatious, sexy, intelligent and confident," he says. "It talks about her dual personality. All pretty and proper on the outside, with a naughty, mean streak within. It’s cheek and chutzpah, cleverly concealed by innocence."

Drawing inspiration from teen fashion of the 60s and 70s, Rocky came up with a western look that is chic and contemporary, with touches of his flamboyant style. This collection found him playing with separates as never before, putting them together to create a flirty, young, feminine look.

Rocky's skirts came in all shapes and lengths, from the barely there micro minis, to nostalgia inducing flouncy, layered, calf length ones and finally long columnar numbers perched provocatively at the hips. One detail that caught my eye, was the bunched up waistline of this shimmery gold skirt, held in place with an applied waistband.

Denim played an important part but was restricted to leg clinching jeans with lavish embroidery, and seemed discordant with the over all feel of the collection. Metallic and glitter elements were spotted, as gold shorts, dazzling structured jackets and glittering corsets gave the collection the drama it needed.

Fabrics ranged from lace, georgette, chiffon, lame and Rocky's new favourite - faux fur, appeared as trims, bolero jackets, and stoles, sometimes with jarring effect. Asymmetry was the common theme, whether for his tunics, blouses, skirts or dresses.

Rocky showed a fondness for the 'H' shaped Flapper silhoutte, as seen here on Carol Gracias, along with the Empire line. His silhouettes showed extremes - close fitted all the way or voluminous peasant sleeves, skirts and blouses - the latter reined in with a tight vest on occasion.

One of the highlights of the collections was the rich texturing and surface treatment for some of the garments - ruching, shredding, smocking to give new life to the fabrics.

The colour palette was muted as neutrals and pastels like pink, champagne, were enlivened by sudden bursts of bright cherry reds, golds and forest greens.

Embellishments were opulent as clear crystals, stones, polished pearls and 3D flowers gave the designer's high end prêt line called 'Rocky S Noir' that up market feel.

Hair styling included original 60s teen hair dos with lots of soft curls and fringes. A charming addition was the off-white flower detail which replaced ribbons and bows as hair fasteners.

Rocky's make-up story borrowed heavily from the Lolita look again with lots of pink on lips and fresh faces. The look was intended to be youthful and flirtatious and Rocky scored a perfect 10.

With inputs from www.rvgonline.com
Photos: Reuters, Rediff.com

Of wardrobe malfunctions and ramp gaffs!

I know, I ought to have given you detailed reviews of the LFW Day 1 shows by now, but I have got a life, plus more pressing are the faux pas and faux moves which keep coming off the ramp our way and need to be spoken of!

First it was Surily Goel going OTT on the glam factor, resulting in the collection of a serious designer like Anshu Arora Sen being sent to near oblivion (Indian news channel NDTV has been showcasing Rocky S' video clip with the title "A Small Shop", hoping no one in fashiondom will know the difference) and now we have a huge huge gaff by Mumbai based designer Bennu Sehgall.

Model Carol Gracias was left red cheeked and bare chested mid ramp thanks to an ill-fitting and badly constructed halter top designed by Bennu Sehgall for her line titled 'Bennu Sehgall Originals'. An audience packed with fashionistas, international buyers, media reps and photographers got more than what they bargained for when Carol took to the catwalk and the ties on her halter top came undone! Commendably the model kept her calm, held up the garment and kept on strutting with poise and confidence, even striking a pose at head ramp.

Backstage whispers reveal that Bennu Sehgall's outfits were "ill-fitting and bizarre" and models, who are known to accomodate all manner of oddities and fancies of designer clothing and accessories, were reluctant to don her ensembles.

Well, we now hear the Fashion Week organisers are rethinking Sehgall's membership. It's unfortunate but that's what we have fittings for! They are meant to help avoid such gaffs and the onus of ensuring that the show goes smoothly lies on the designer and her backstage help.

All would have been well had the ensembles been given the clean chit fit-wise. But as that isn't so, it does throw something of an eclipse on Bennu Sehgall's future with Lakme Fashion Week.

Well there is always the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week. There you have it... the silver lining in view.

Photo: Rediff.com

Fashion Week Snapshots:

Bollywood outshines Surily's clothes

How many celluloid stars does it take to light up a show? If you go by Surily Goel's estimate, atleast three on ramp and seven odd more in the front row.

You'd think it was a Bollywood awards show with the number of celebs that lined Surily's show.

With Neelam Kothari rendering sweet and girly, an African inspiration tube dress, followed by Salman lending his trademark maschismo to the velvet suit emblazoned "Royalty" and Malaika Arora rounding off the catwalk with a huge dose of sultry style, the show seemingly had something for everyone.

Well, in her own words: "Clothes are not just embellishments that enhance one's personality they also reflect it. I ensure that there is only one point of emphasis in every garment I design. To define my design philosophy with three adjectives clarity, wearablity and most of all versatility."

She appears to be sticking to her mantra with mixed results.


Too much of a good thing?

The dress code for Manish Malhotra's special invitees appears to have been black and white, what with the ramp decked out in pure black and the collection that graced it fashioned in ethereal white.

Here's Sangeeta Bijlani with cricketer husband Azhar, dressed in what can only be termed a study in variegated black and white stripes. While the suit is classy and as we overheard an Armani, the sailor striped tee could have been given a clear miss for something solid. Same goes for the satin handbag... simply a stripe too many.

Absolutely delicious thought are the sassy zebra sandals. Let's just train our eyes on those.

Photos: Reuben Varghese for Rediff.com

Lakme Fashion Week Sidelines:

Narendra Ahmed's petition against the FDCI shot down

Cementing the divide between the Mumbai and Delhi fashion circles, the Anti-Monopoly Commission yesterday turned down Mumbai designer Narendra Ahmed's petition to stay the FDCI's upcoming Fashion Week in Delhi. Ahmed had hoped to delay the India Fashion Week so that he could show his clothes there post the Lakme Fashion Week.

Ever since FDCI parted ways with Lakme, it had imposed a ban on participation of designers who attend the rival event.

The commision held that the restrictions imposed by FDCI did not amount to "restrictive practices". FDCI on it's part sited 'limited' exhibition slots -- either on ramp or in stalls, adding that in the larger interest of the fashion fraternity, the council was focused on giving priority to those members who are not exhibiting in other events.

Contrary to the populist view, the commission views the FDCI's stand as one that "promotes competition and does not curtail it by adopting restrictive trade practices".

Maybe there's comfort to be found in Lenin's words: "It is impossible to predict the time and progress of revolution. It is governed by its own more or less mysterious laws. But when it comes it moves irresistibly."

Read up on the punches and blows so far.

The Lakme Fashion Week kicks off in Mumbai

The Lakme Fashion Week 2006 commenced today in Mumbai, amid much hype and some confusion. One last minute snag that caused much anxiety was the change of PR agencies from IPAN to Genesis. That blip past, and post the usual delays, the fashion set, journalists and international buyers strapped in for the crazy ride this week promises to be!

Day 1 saw the prêt lines of Mumbai designers Rocky S, Surily Goel and Manish Malhotra along with the show of waifish Delhi based designer Anshu Arora Sen for 'A Small Shop'.

Bollywood dominated the scene with stars wedged in the front row seats as well as on the ramp. With Surily Goel literally 'watching his back', Salman Khan strutted the ramp in a flashy red shirt and black suit emblazoned with the words "Royalty" at his back.

With model Shivani Kapur looking the icy pale Goth Bride by his side, Bollywood actor John Abraham strode down the ramp, a part of the show stopper for Rocky S. The duo were a vision of haute couture for what Lakme proposed was to be essentially a presentation of ready-to-wear clothing.

Oh well, John won the audience's appreciation.

Rocky explained: "John is a good friend. In all-women model show, we thought making a guy walk the ramp would make it look complete. So, at the end of the show, we have John walking in with Kapur."

Photo: Jewella C Miranda for Rediff.com

Spotlight: Anshu Arora Sen

Designer Anshu Arora Sen is known as the petite woman's designer, choosing to construct clothing with minimal seams and no zippers or mechanical fastenings, her clothes are often termed 'zen-like'. Having trained in Fashion Design at NIFT, Anshu started her label “A Small Shop” in 1998. Her collection currently retails in India, as well as in London and Brussels.

Collection Trademark: minimalist; vibrant colours; adventurous shapes, cuts and drapes; traditional Indian craft-inspired details e.g. drawstrings (her creations are devoid of zippers and fasteners!)

Drop by for reviews, trend spotlights and snatches of gossip as the event unfurls right here and swing around to Sifymax, for live webcasts of the shows.

Up Next:

• Rocky picks on 'Lolita' for inspiration.
• Deconstructing Surily's style statement.
• Get lyrical with Anshu Arora Sen.
  
• The reveal on Manish Malhotra's collection.
  

An intiative with heart: From bags to riches

A small - scale project to help an Indian slum by selling handbags made of discarded plastic has boomed into a million - grand industry with a heart.

It may sound hard to believe, but handbags for sale in some of London's fashionable boutiques started out as used plastic bags scavenged from the rubbish heaps of Delhi. They are the product of a cottage industry run out of the living rooms of a handful of houses in a Delhi slum. The plastic bags are ferreted out by the rag-pickers, the poorest of Delhi's poor, who make their living hunting for scraps in the rubbish of their richer neighbours.

They are then moulded together into single sheets of thick, durable plastic, stitched into handbags with bright, colourful designs, and sent off to boutiques in Britain, the US, France, Spain, and much of Europe.

It is all the result of an environmental and development project dreamed up four years ago by an Indian couple, Shalabh and Anita Ahuja, who run their own NGO, Conserve.

The plastic is stitched into brightly coloured handbags

Waste management is one of the biggest problems that India faces and Anita and her friends have been tackling the issue since 1998. They worked on a waste management project with low-income groups in Mandaoli (a Delhi slum) for nearly four years, and then started another project in Safdarjung. "We collected waste from 500 houses to make compost in a municipal corporation park. That's when we realised how much plastic the city uses. So we started on the plastic bag project."

Conserve came up with the novel idea of turning used plastic bags into trendy handbags, shopping bags, wallets, tablemats and notepad covers. These are being snapped up by environment-friendly shoppers, who are happy to support an idea that has changed the lives of slum women and turned one of the banes of city life into a saleable product. The plastic bags are collected by women from east Delhi slums (Phoragaon, Yamuna Pusta and Mandaoli). Each day, they scavenge around the garbage bins, hunt in choked drains and pick up flyaway trash on traffic-infested roads. The plastic they collect is thoroughly washed, dried, separated by colour and arranged in trays; the women wear masks while working to protect themselves from plastic toxicity. The plastic bags then go into a machine designed by Conserve, which presses them into thick sheets. These sheets are then bought by Conserve.

Says Anita:

"I have started looking at plastic differently. Much to my family's embarrassment, I get out of my car at traffic lights and pick up colourful plastic bags from the roads. It's very difficult to colour plastic and we use no dyes. Colourful bags make the sheets more vibrant."

She admits that most people are hesitant about buying bags made from waste plastic. "We tell the women making the sheets that they must wash the plastic very carefully, for buyers will be looking at both quality and cleanliness." Conserve's efforts were amply rewarded when the products they recently put up during a special event at Dilli Haat (a permanent crafts bazaar) were all sold out. The products sold at reasonable prices — handbags between Rs 300 and Rs 1,500, shopping bags from Rs 50 to Rs 250 and wallets between Rs 100 and Rs 300.

They freely admit that they never dreamed that what they envisaged as a small-scale project for a single slum would turn into a profitable enterprise, exporting all over the world and with an annual turnover of around £100,000.

Today, Conserve's handbags contribute to the livelihoods of more than 300 people, from the rag-pickers paid for collecting the plastic bags, to the skilled labourers who sew the handbags. The NGO employs eight rag-pickers directly, as its core team, but buys plastic bags from a far larger number.

Anita and her team are thrilled with the compliments they have been receiving. "If we count the human hours put into the project, I can safely say we have invested roughly Rs 1 lakh in it. We hope we can get a grant to buy sewing machines. At present, women gather in the homes of those who have machines and this slows down our production. We also need more sheet-presser machines and we need to expand our collection centres. But more importantly, the women who work for Conserve should become the shareholders of the company. If that happens then in our small way, we may get people to see throwaway plastic bags differently."

With inputs from The Star, BBC.co.uk and The Hindu.

Shawl Whisperer

This shawl is no ordinary piece of clothing. While gifts allow us to remember friends and loved ones when we travel or move to far away places, the whiSpiral is a new kind of keepsake that explores how technology can enhance the way garments and accessories evoke memories of these relationships.

And I simply *love* the point of inspiration... The whiSpiral is inspired by the power of a simple human voice to evoke rich memories of a person or relationship, and by the power of a whisper as a medium of intimacy.

Circuitry is directly integrated in the textile that allows you to record up to 9 audio messages at different points in a spiral-shaped shawl. The messages are whispered back each time you wrap the shawl around yourself, or caress a different part of the fabric. The whiSpiral would be a perfect going away gift.

Levi's RedWire DLX iPod jeans

A quick heads-up to Fall '06.

Now we all know how hugely popular the iPod is. Billions and gazillion pieces sold worldwide. The final frontier for iPod accessories is clothing. And who's the latest to jump on that particular bandwagon? None other than jeans-maker Levis is keeping its date with technology. Come Fall and Levis will launch the new Levi's RedWire DLX Jeans worldwide.

Designed for both men and women, the jeans will seamlessly integrate iPod plug-and-play technology, using an iPod docking cradle, which will be invisibly housed within a side pocket.

Interestingly a special joystick remote control will be externally designed into the jeans' watch pocket to enable easy operation of the iPod. Four way controls will allow the wearer to easily navigate, play/pause, track forward, track back and adjust volume without removing the device from the pocket. Sounds groovy.... In addition, a handy retractable headphone unit has been built directly into the garment to help prevent tangles and efficiently manage the earphone wires.

Now we assume all of this will be detachable, if they have any intentions of letting you wash your jeans! Then again, jeans do look best when never, ever washed, so who knows.

Of Bollywood tailors and star waist sizes

Last week i worked on a fashion styling assignment. The project involved styling a set of 6 heavily embroidered kanjivaram sarees for the photoshoot of a South Indian saree brand called Seemati. The model was Indian tele/ theatre actress Mandira Bedi.

The shoot went off without a hitch, and we managed to achieve the right look courtesy some mighty creative draping and a few blouses and corsets i got tailored from Mandira's tailor.

Located in the bylanes of a Mumbai suburb is the workshop of the man. Having reached there post a long day of fabric sourcing, i was looking to breeze in, explain the styles, hand over the material and vamoosh! After going back and forth on a few styling details, the man launched into delivering me a) the story of his life and b) his extended resume.

While i was pleased to know that he's worked with the likes of Shah Rukh Khan, Sridevi, Karishma Kapoor, Rani Mukherjee and the lot, i was unable to evoke the kind of response he was probably expecting to his revelations.

At one point he thrust in my face the photos of a cross dressed SRK, as taken during the filming of 'Duplicate'. He proudly pointed out how his corset had aided the Khan in flaunting a life-like cleavage (which admittedly looked pretty real) and helped draw in his waist from an ungainly 34" to a womanly 25". He also hastened to add he'd performed magic in the same vein to reel in the expansive waistline of the original Indian bhangra man Daler Mehendi.

I must admit the man's pieces fit like a dream, and were wonderfully finished as well. Maybe i ought to call him to say so and boost his spirits :)