Lakme Fashion Week S/S 10: Button Masala by Anuj Sharma

I've always loved the concepts Anuj Sharma comes up with. The idea of wearing one garment in more than one way really appeals to me. Not to forget his catchy taglines. Remember 'Knot for you' and 'Eylet it be'?! Outfits from these collections are still doing the rounds in the celeb circuit. Priya Tanna, editor of Vogue India wore a dress from his Knot For You collection earlier this year. Also spotted in Anuj Sharma were Pratima Bhatia, Babita Malkhani and Antara Mali.

Button Masala is another collection along the same lines. As the name suggests, he's played around a lot with buttons, both as a surface embellishment and of course, his signature, as a way to provide for different options for fastening. Some of the silhouettes, like the strappy handkerchief style and blanket-draped-over-one-shoulder, are repeats from his last few collections. The entire collections gets an A for wearibility, but for me, it falls flat. You can only go so far with a great concept. Execution is pretty important. Red, black and white can get boring fast.

I did love the off white maxi dress with the oh-so-prim collar though (picture on the top right). Very cute. Only wish the rest of the collection was a s good.

Lakme Fashion Week A\W09: Walnut by Nidhi and Divya Gambhir

Shift dresses sure are popular this fall. Walnut by Nidhi and Divya Gambhir showcased a collection that seemed to feature shift dresses almost exclusively. I'm not complaining -- I'm loving this trend. And the Gambhirs have some really awesome shifts in their collection. Bright colours and totally fab quirky prints are featured extensively. I love love the shifts that look like paint was smeared on with a palette knife. Talk about visual texture! I also love the jewel toned dresses with the fabric manipulations that emulate the bandage-dress trend. And that yummy uber-minimal red trench! Bandana Tewari wore something very similar during the fashion week. And she looked awesome in it!

I heart this collection.

Lakme Fashion Week A\W09: Archana Kochhar

I liked the bright bright colours. I liked that Archana Kochhar experimented with fabric manipulation techniques. And that's about all that I liked about this collection. Going OTT can sometimes make a real fashion statement, or it can backfire miserably. For me, the outcome was clearly the later. The ruffles with the poofy fabric manipulations with the surface ornamentation and embroidery was just too much. Messy. Pretty much every gown in this collection looked like a pre-pubescent Indian teenage girly girl's idea of a ball gown.

BTW, is it just me, or does the showstopper (the gown covered with origami-like flowers in various shades of pink and white) remind you of Rohit Bal's Gulal collection?

Lakme Fashion Week A\W 09: Gaba by Aneeth Arora and Chinar Farooqi

Never have dull neutrals and dowdy darks looked better. I'm a total colour lover (Hey! That rhymes.), but OMG, Aneeth & Chinar sure had me at full attention with this collection.

Sometimes, I think that here in India, we have two fashion seasons just for the heck of it. Cause really, most of the country is pretty temprate and there's only so much of a market for really warm wintry clothes. And we're also a country that has a colour fixation. We're pretty much okay with every colour all the time. (Hah! I'm not the only one.) So most designers pretty much do as they please, with varying levels of regard to the forecasts. Not so in this case. Both the colours and the garments are very winter. Though I'm sure if some of the looks were de-layered a bit, they'd be perfectly comfy in temprate weather as well.

As for the collection, think very very fashionable tea pickers (like the one's those old TATA tea ads). Long puffed sleeves, loose gathered pinafores and artisty smocks coupled with almost-opaque stockings, mary-janes, head scarves worn tea-picker style and even cloaks! With a very minimalist ethnic feel. I particularly loved the cloaks. The black one, worn over the cute grey silk shift, is very Harry Potter. And I think I spotted a few Ikats in the collection, along with a bunch of other ethnic Indian fabrics. And I really like those uber baggy pants in grey. And everything else too. The whole collection = fabulosity.

Lakme Fashion Week A\W 09: Pria Kataaria Puri

I'm guessing this would be THE collection if you're a fashion dilettante from the Middle East. I've heard she's got quite a following there.

But I still hate this collection. And there are just so many things that I hate about it. Like the pseudo-oriental prints dulled down by an uninspiring colour palette, that reminded me of cheap curtains mostly. Take that and add hair that's reminiscent of classical Greek sculpture and you've got a major culture clash. And the fact that she's taken a trend I love -- wide belts -- and made them look like bawdy curtain rings. Or the OTT psychedelic raccoon eye make up.

Added to all the monstrosities that walked down the ramp, she threw in a few cliches too. Like the gold bikini with the sari and the handkerchief-style maxi dress. And why, God, why has she used fur in a collection that's supposed to be aimed at hot desert countries? Maybe I just don't get Middle Eastern aesthetics, but Fur? Really?

Lakme Fashion Week A\W 09: Rimzim Dadu

Bright popping acid colour. Check. Uber creative textures. Check. Chic silhouettes. Check. And that's why I really liked Rimzim Dadu's collection. You gotta love a girl who ain't sacred of using so much acid colour in an A\W collection. I particularly loved the oranges. And the magolicious textures!!! The cut-outs, the craggy woven houndstooth, the patchwork. Tres tres chic. She stuck to the oh-so-popular shift silhouette mostly, with a few variations -- a trapeze here, a sheath there. What I didn't get was the sari. It just seemed very out of place in this very young, funky collection. And there was this really blah shapeless green dress in chiffon. But I'm going to forgive those, cause the rest of the collection sure did make up for it!

Lakme Fashion Week A\W 09: Sabyasachi

I used to love Sabyasachi. So fresh, so quirky, so totally ethnic Indian! But, somehow, these days, his work is starting to feel kinda stale. Like he's already been there, done that.

His A\W 09 collection, as usual was classic Sabya -- Ethnic, quirky, organic and earthy, with current trends incorporated into the look, like the sheer overskirt and the sheer sharara, the semi-fitted shift silhouette, layering and the chic chunky ethnic jewellery. Some of the looks worked, some really didn't. Can't say I care too much for the sheer sharara. But I did love the earthy scoop neck shifts worn over blouses, etc. Very cute. And the chottu sari! Love the concept and the execution. And I absolutely LOVED all the accessories. The chunky, super-oversized kadah like bangles, the gorgeous neck pieces, all of it.

Lakme Fashion Week A\W09: Nachiket Barve

Watching Barve's show gave me an odd sense of déja vu. And when I went through his previous season's collection at his stall I understood why. Barve's autmn-winter collection seemed to be a more sombre interpretation of his spring-summer. The bright acid colour slightly loose shift dresses that he'd displayed last season were in more sombre avatars for autmn-winter. Colour gradation, which he'd used as a prominent design element back, in a more wintry palette. Even the fabric treatments and surface ornamentation, which is what I like most about his work, seemed to be reworked from last season.

Degas liked painting ballerinas. So he painted a whole bunch of ballerinas. And he did it again. And again. A lot of great artists have repeatedly painted the same subject. It's quite possible that Barve's creative spirit wanted to revisit and look at his last collection through new eyes. But this is fashion, and that excuse doesn't work so well when the industry is so fickle with its affections.

On a brighter note, I did really like his collection. I liked the both the applique and the printed shift dresses. And I loved the very bling strapless black shift worn with black legging and mary janes. Tres chic!

Lakme Fashion Week A\W09: Swapnil Shinde

I've been seeing Swapnil Shinde's spring-summer collection EVERYWHERE. On celebrities and p3peeps out to attend parties and events (Mugdha Godse, Simran Kaur Mundi, Monica Bedi and on Amrita Rao like upmteen times) and on magazine covers (Grazia - Feb 09 issue, Cosmopolitan - Feb 09 issue). So I entered the show with pretty high expectations.

And I totally wasn't dissapointed! I loved the whole goth-schoolgirl-going-for-prom thing he had going on. Not to mention those red tartan-esque checked prints that he so liberally used throughout his collection -- on these really cute wide belts, as trim and on the whole of this chic, flared, thigh-high slit dress.

And that dress with the pink and black weave-print under sheer net with a poufy skirt and a wide tartan belt (top right, see picture). It appeals to my whimsical side.

The gowns that were the later half of this collection were nice. Glamourous and chic. And I'm pretty sure I'll start spotting them on celebs at parties soon enough. (In fact, I think Priyanka Chopra wore two of the gowns showcased in this collection before they hit the runway!) But they didn't hold the same appeal to me as the first half.

Lakme Fashion Week A\W09: Anand Kabra

Anand Kabra usually has a nice concept behind his pretty dresses. I loved his spring-summer collection (which he showcased at the last fashion week) which had been inspired by the character Malena. So I took the time to go through his press release. This collection was named And the Mirror Crack'd. And immediately I thought of Agatha Christe (with me being a bookaholic, not that surprising). I'm not sure if Kabra had Dame Christie in mind while desiging this collection or not, but if he did, I couldn't see it. It could just have been a reference to the gorgeous mirror work that featured as a prominent design element in some of the garments.

Now to the collection itself. The colour palette had a lot of black, mostly as a base colour, with a few bursts of grey, golden yellow, teal and orange thrown in for good measure. I saw a lot of relaxed, semi-fitted silhouettes, duochromatic goemetric prints, and this rather interesting circular motif, which appeared alternatively as lace trim, as plain ole embroidery or with mirror work. The collection spelled sophistication and easy elegance, and to top it of, most of the looks was totally wearable. This being said, there were a few pieces that I didn't like. The golden yellow dress for instance, it was a tad too boring. And the mirrored legging were a bit too much. But the circular motif sari was quite interesting. And I absolutely LOVED the geometric print dresses!! Especially the off-shoulder one. So chic.

Lakme Fashion Week A\W09: Little Shilpa

The lights dimmed, and sudden roar of a fighter jet plane made those inattentive few in the audience sit up straight. Zoom zoom BOOM! As the film projector brought to life a war scene shot in the air, the first model strutted down the ramp to give us that first glimpse of Little Shilpa's accessory collection. Talk about a dramatic start! And the rest of Shilpa's air force/war inspired did justice to hype that had built up in the initial minutes of the show. Though not what I'd call entirely wearable, this collection was a like a very satisfying creative exercise. Every look was meticulously and effectively styled. I absolutely love the look with the sari, camouflage head gear, and that kamar-bandh reminiscent belt. And that hat! The one that looks like it has little jet planes flying around it. It just looks so (I KNOW I sound juvenile, but what can I say, it fits) COOL. I like the grungy neck pieces with the medals hanging from them. And these ones are totally wearable.

Lakme Fashion Week A\W09: Anamika Khanna

Anamika Khanna's collection was the grand finale to the Lakme Fashion Week. And unlike every other time that I've attended LFW (as a student), this time I actually got a place to sit to watch the show, and that too second row! Ah, the wonders of holding that magic Media Pass(courtesy Femina, the magazine at which I was interning at that point of time).

For a bridal collection aimed at the Indian market, this collection was very very toned ,down. I'm always a fan of the subtle style statement as opposed to the ostentatious, especially when it comes to Indian ethnic fashion, so I loved it! I am so wholeheartedly sick of watching those impossible heavy ghagra skirts and opulently bejeweled saris sashaying down the ramp, which is the case in most bridal collections (except, of course Sabyasachi's bridal collection last season). So Khanna's collection was like a breath of fresh air. The colour palette spelled subtle luxury -- bright golds and rich reds accompanied by creams and pastels. Alongside the saris and ghagras were churidars-kurtas and distinctly ethnic gowns in a creative mix of silhouettes. I particularly liked the printed ghagra with the gold border, the print works so well as a design element here. I also loved the look in which the model is wearing a gold blouse and black churidar which is covered with a gorgeously embellished sheer over skirt.

Lakme Fashion Week A\W09: Mandira Wirk

Ladylike and elegant, this collection is for the woman who really likes dressing up. The colour palette was muted combination of blacks, greys, wines and olive. Combine these with furs, velvets and wool blends, and some jersey to lighten it up a bit, and you've got a look that means Business. The gathered drapes that seemed to be continuing theme softens this rather severe looking collection. And the rubber print detailing somehow manages to look elegant. There was a bit too much happening for my taste, but it worked well enough. I really like the long flowy halter dress with the gorgeous lace-like detailing from knee to hem(see below) worn with the hat. And Mandira Wirk looked so pretty walking the ramp in a dress from the same collection! That's her in the bottom right picture.

Lakme Fashion Week A\W09: Lina Tipnis

Powerful, yet utterly feminine and luxurious. Jewel tones and gorgeous browns in opulent silks. Form fitting silhouettes that didn't hug the body, but rather framed it. And very Indian prints. Now this collection I can see on urban Indian woman. It was wearable, which usually translates to boring, but not in this case. Celebrating womanhood has become a bit of a cliche these days, but what else can you say when this collection seemed to do exactly that? And you've got to love the outfit with the jodhpuri pants.

Lakme Fashion Week A\W09: Kallol Dutta

Now here's a collection that I really liked. And I do mean ALL of it. The colour palette was soothing but not boring -- full of earthy browns and beiges, army greens and just a little hint of bright colour here and there. There were lots of anti-fit dresses, skirts, batik prints (which weren't too overwhelming, because that can happen sometimes when it comes to batik prints) and jackets with large floppy collars that ended at a point (which I loved). Another thing I thought really worked was the grungy ruffle detailing, which btw, is really in this season. And what I loved best: the extremely awesome and quirky mannequin print.

Lakme Fashion Week A\W09: Rahul Reddy

This whole collection had this chic almost-grown-up-schoolgirl vibe going on for most of the part. I like how he blended the knits with the wovens. Though with those gorgeous textured motifs on the knits, it felt more like the wovens were a subtle complement, as opposed to a proper design element. The colours were mostly bright -- turquoise, mustard, orange and pink, with more sober base colours -- grey, pale blue, sea green, brown and khaki. I LOVE LOVED the knee length shirt-wraped skirts. So cute. And the uber chic gray knit shift dress with the pink trim! Yum. Though not so much the very odd brown skirt with circular relief design.