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Love-ender?

Purple prose has its own literary place — what with its extravagant adjective and metaphors. For centuries, variations of red, from pink to maroon, have been used to enhance the beauty of lips’ lusciousness.

Love-ender?

Sonam Kapoor sporting a plastic-yarn sari by Rimzim Dadu



Ashima S Batish

Purple prose has its own literary place — what with its extravagant adjective and metaphors. For centuries, variations of red, from pink to maroon, have been used to enhance the beauty of lips’ lusciousness. This year at the Cannes Film Festival, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan stepped out on the red carpet and expanded the colour palette, making space for lavender.

Unfortunately, the French cosmetic giant she endorses at the festival each year failed the muse, or so her critics believe. French royalty’s exclusive colour’s transaction from robes to lips met with much negativity. In any case, whatever she does, or doesn’t, serves as fodder for people on social media. And knowing it, Rai came out with a disclaimer even before making this year’s first appearance at the French Riviera, “The Cannes Festival is two days away and I still don’t know what I am wearing. You guys can troll me as much as you want but the fact is I have just been too busy.”

Celebrities often complain that fashion police or critics pointlessly fuss over what they wear, right or wrong. Only talent should be the barometer of their popularity, and not every red-carpet outing should be scrutinised. And they aren’t entirely wrong. What appeared as a one line or a paragraph of criticism in the next day’s newspapers have been replaced by trolls, where celebrities face mass criticism across social media for a perceived fashion goof-up. Everyone has an opinion, and everyone is eager to share. Troll lends every ‘critic’ a voice with guaranteed anonymity.

This time, her lipstick shade split the world into two parts — one that took offence to the fashion blooper and the other that defended the lilac pout. She left some dazzled, some dazed. It channelised people’s creative energies, made them invent one-liners, a talent that would otherwise have remained latent.

Trolled she was for the lip colour, but can you really ask critics to “troll off”. At Cannes, and as a celebrity, who endorses the cosmetic giant, has access to the best of designers, has the most qualified makeup artists with a range of beauty products always, beside the vanity and a battery of stylists, you certainly can’t ask critics to “troll off”. Going wrong with fashion then can’t be justified, not with even “been too busy.”

The rule applies to not just her, but to anybody who stumbles on the red carpet. To even Richa Chadha, who wore a shimmery sari, fit only for a Punjabi wedding, with a red lipper and boring hair-do. Sonam Kapoor, too, wasn’t spared last year when she wore the furry dress. Memes followed instantly as did appreciation for the blue Ralph and Russo gown. So Rai is not an exception when it comes to getting trolled. Any celebrity gets flak when they get fashion wrong just like one gets trended when one hits the nail. That’s another thing that Rai is subjected to it most of the times because she gets it wrong a lot of times! The blingy Abu Jani- Sandeep Khosla sari was never meant for an international film festival, nor was the golden Tarun Tahiliani drape in the past, and even this time, the Rohit Bal ensemble that she wore, standing against the poster of her upcoming film, Sarbjit, was a wrong pick.

Mickey Contractor, Bollywood’s most popular makeup artist and creative director of a rival cosmetic brand, though supports Rai for her sartorial and makeup choices, “At times, you can’t foresee the reactions you will receive from the audience.” He feels that lilac served the purpose for which it was experimented. “The wearer grabbed the eyeballs, and so did the cosmetic brand. There is a deluge of videos already on YouTube teaching how to and how not to use lilac lip shade.” He asserts that she has the right to experiment but it is only welcomed as long as it goes right.

The same rule, however, doesn’t seem to apply to all other Hollywood celebrities. Julia Roberts walked the same red carpet barefoot, while Kristern Stewart made a statement in a sporty outfit. If Rai had done a Julia, would she have received similar applause? Nachiket Barve, ace fashion designer and someone who has worked closely with Rai says: “Seems like we are suffering from a colonial hangover. Julia Roberts breaks the biggest rule of Cannes and she is a rebel, and Aishwarya goes for an unusual lip colour, and she has committed a sin! She dresses up instinctively and wanted to have some fun with the purple shade. And that’s about it.”

While the debate over purple pout will not die soon, the season’s winner is Sonam Kapoor and the Rimzim Dadu sari she wore for a press conference. By sporting the plastic-yarn sari, Sonam not only gave a thrust to her style quotient, but also elevated the Indian designer to the international level. A fine example of how a star can promote a designer and how a designer can promote a star.

Now, that’s what did not come together for Rai — both sides failed to see the purple clouds that later rained on the Cannes red carpet.

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