sexiest dress up

There have been many interesting things happening in the last couple of weeks… Manish Arora, the only Indian designer who is spoken about by the West, has now tied up with AMR Infrastructure to design suites and penthouses of the upcoming luxury residential venture by the company. This is for the first time that an Indian designer designing an entire range of luxury living space… but then Arora has several first to his credit — London Fashion Week, Paris Fashion Week, first and the only Indian designer to be a member of the Chambre Syndical de la Couture, designed for Reebok, Nestle, Mac, Swatch, Nivea and many other international brands… it will be interesting to see the Manish Arora touch on luxury living…
Over to the last week now… to the Aamby Valley India Bridal Fashion Week…
At the recently concluded third edition of the Aamby Valley City India Bridal Fashion Week 2012, one thing was evident… the organisers have upped the scale at which the event was held. Collections appeared in the company of elegant settings and the seating and runway too were unique…
Trends emerged out of the Week:
Backdrop: In elegant gold and ivory, tall pillars and entry points, made in three layers for all shows except for the opening and closing. Opening by Tarun Tahiliani had the entire venue converted in a fairy tale forest while closing by JJ Valaya made it look like an architectural marvel with several performers doing their acts seated atop on all sides.
Runway/Seating: a rectangular runway with seating in the middle and also in the aisles making the total number of seating 560. This worked well for popular designers with all guest getting a chance to sit and watch the show while the not-so-popular had to face more of seats and not the guests staring at their collections. But then, their early time slots could also be the reason for this.
Silhouettes: Came in all forms… while some chose to stick to their traditional wear, like Pallavi Jaikishen with her beautifully embroidered Indian wear or Vikram Phadnis’ range of bridals, or Ashima-Leena’s range of beautifully coordinated Indianwear, the rest chose to mix traditional wear with some fusion or cocktail outfits like Tarun Tahiliani in his opening show and JJ Valaya at his closing… Narendra Kumar at his debut attempt at the bridal (well, not quite bridal, but some surely for peripheral functions), Jyotsna Tiwari with her play of reds with embroidery, Anjali and Arjun with a very attractive treatment of surfaces with crystals and embroidery, Meera-Muzzaffar’s rather clean and straight looks that stood out on the runway, Shantanu-Nikhil and some of Mandira Wirk’s pretty western looks… and of course by Shane & Falguni Peacock…
Target clientele: It seemed there was something for everyone on the runway going by the names of designers who presented their collection on the runway… while bigger and senior names obviously will be the sure choice of large-scale weddings, there were also some whom others with relatively smaller budgets could hope to lay their hands on.
What worked: For sure the impressive backdrops, lavish settings including the innovative runway and seating, impressive lineup of participants, lavish lounges serving the best…
What didn’t work: Poor floor management with guests being allowed to walk on the runway even when the shows were on; most ‘brides’ walked as if they were attending a funeral with no smiles and with stern faces during most shows (they should have been briefed to look pleasant).