“The garments are the contemporary interpretation of traditional Indian clothing.”
Hosted by the Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI), the country’s capital took centre stage with Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week (WIFW).
Bringing India’s fashion followers a week of style, innovation and trend alerts for the coming Spring/Summer 2015.
WIFW kicked off with ‘Pero’ by Aneeth Arora who truly captured the essence of Spring/Summer.
As a season well known to see the weather blossom, Arora represented this time of year with a grass green runway set planted with flourishing flowers.
She substituted handbags with watering cans and created floral headpieces to crown each Spring/Summer look. Some flaunted the delicate pastel buds on the actual garments while others embraced the bigger more blossomed pieces to anchor that flower power statement.
On the second day of the five day Spring/Summer spectacular was announced a more serious message behind Viral, Ashish and Vikrant’s collection, ‘Virtues’.
In the first instalment, we were presented with powder blue pinstripes followed by loose dusky pink fabrics. Then came a short presentation about HIV alongside a message of equality the designers wished to communicate.
The red ribbon that symbolises World Aids Day narrated the colour palette thereafter with red, white and taupe dominating the latter half of their collection. Wide leg trousers fitted with tailored jackets were a prominent style for the male models, while the ladies mildly pirouetted the long flowing dresses in these trio of colours.
Day three was the busiest day of the week at WIFW with shows running from 2pm right the way until the last show at 9:45pm. Neha Dhupia, and Huma Qureshi were among popular celebrity attendees who arrived to watch Friday’s show.
Building up to the event, sports star Sania Mirza (read our DESIblitz article here) was subjected to the spotlight after being cast to model designer Ritu Pande’s collection. So how did the athlete perform on the catwalk?
The tennis player did not seem phased walking the ramp as she explained after the show: “It’s fun to walk the ramp. Ritu is a dear friend and brilliant designer.”
Appearing in Pande’s showstopper finale frock, Mirza was applauded as she displayed the pale, jasmine yellow and white gown which was elegantly embroidered with lacing finished with some floral décor.
Khoobsurat actress Aditi Rao Hydari also made her debut as a catwalk model on the ramp for designer Payal Singhal. Singhal’s collection ‘Firdaus’ is inspired by Kashmir’s Gulmarg valley: “The garments are the contemporary interpretation of traditional Indian clothing,” she describes.
Pastels surfaced as a favourite tone of colour amongst many of the visuals at WIFW Spring/Summer 15. Wendell Rodricks was one of the designers who continued this trend when closing the penultimate day’s proceedings with his collection, ‘Yoga Calm’.
When you think pastel colours, ideas of peace and tranquillity come to mind, which are also motifs of yoga. Rodrick’s collection was very true to this.
As the men showed us less is more, quite literally, walking topless while wearing white lungis with silver borders, the women flowed down the runway in breathable shades of white.
Other designers who experimented with similar colours include Paras and Shalini. Their collection ‘Geisha Designs’ unveiled their creative Indian adaptation on geisha prints.
The garments featured tones of purple sitting next to pastel lime greens. Such colours together with leafy tile prints succeeded in upholding the traditional Japanese design whilst intertwining Spring greenery.
The fifth and final day highlight came from Rohit Bal who presented the WIFW grand finale with his collection ‘Gulbagh’.
Very Indian inspired, the choices of prints and textiles exercised by Bal helped retain India’s traditional roots and brought originality to the runway in a very opulent manner. The show was completed with a standing ovation bringing tears of joy to Bal’s eyes. FDCI said:
“Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week provides a promising platform to fashion connoisseurs in the country which sees the coming together of the finest in the fraternity.”
Along with a pretty pastel palette, WLIFW has invited us to a geometric take on Spring/Summer 15 using creamy taupe tones with bursts of geometric oranges and pinks from designers like Pallavi Mohan.
If that does not satisfy your taste, a pop of spicy red and orange designed by Alpana Neeraj also awakened the catwalk with the silky shiny textures making way for a flowed finish. The fashion forecast for next year definitely looks filled with likeable trends.
The event triumphed in uniting Indian, Indo-Western and Western fashion together between established and emerging designers. Be it ready-to-wear or couture, each designer conveyed their vision imaginatively for fashion lovers to benefit from their style inspirations.
General fashion devotees are not the only types of fashionistas present at the event. Industry personnel including buyers, journalists and advertisers all line up in seek of potential collaborations and features.
For full images of each individual designer’s Spring/Summer 15 collection, head over to the official WIFW page available here.
Loading ...