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.

Trend Alert! The Snood

It's a scarf sans the dangly bits. A bit like an oversize collar. Totally awesome for klutzy people, example moi, who tend to leave things behind if they aren't securely attached to their bodies. And oh. It's very fall chic.

Both Burberry Prorsum and Missoni featured the snood in their Fall '09 RTW collections. The slouchy cowled drape of the Missoni snood will work with most any wintry outfit.

Missoni RTW Fall '09

Burberry Prorsum RTW Fall '09

This totally cute snood from Promod is bargain compared to the pricier designer versions. I've seen this in rich teal, caramely brown and creamy white, at the store in Hyderabad. Love.

Promod Chunky Double Knit Collar, 24.95 €

This snood is slouchier and snugglier. Very cute.
ASOS Ribbed Knitted Snood, $30.59

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.