Westernwear for all seasons
Fashion
By Anjana Sarin

IN their anxiety to catch up with the new millennium, Indian designers have suddenly come up with a plethora of styles, silhouettes, cuts and colours that are distinctly western in their look and feel. For once, no excuses are offered for straying away from Indian tradition and culture.

So there are more greys and dusty pastels seen on the racks and ramps, than the good old reds and bright oranges. Pale blues, pinks and sunny-day yellow with a misty spin present a sombre, soulful picture, more intense than tints.

Complementing these colours are fabrics with matching visual and tactile qualities. Light and airy, these technofibres are available in a variety of finishes — from luxurious valvet to rough cotton and jute, to even metallic.

Prints however, remain traditionally eastern — Shantung silk with Indian flower motifs, paisley and bandhini, mehndi patterns, saree border designs and so forth. Docorative fabric trims are also making an appearance with accessories that push a look over the top.A typical example is the Rohit Bal suit. Black, flat front, with woollen trousers falling to the ankles and a body-contoured single-button jacket, it seeks to reinvent the classic. You belong to the mob when you wear it with a spread collar shirt.

There’s Shefali Nangia with her cobalt blue, Shantung silk and burnt gold floral jacquard suit. The skirt is new middle-length, skimming the knees with a side-slit. The top is an asymmetric piece of wizardy held together with two buttons in a wrapover.

Airy,light-weight textured knits are also showing up from several design studios where the accent is on fingertip-length sleeves in classic chocolate. Also distinctive is a textured pull over with front tie detail in maize gold and worn with grey trousers.

Clearly, the accent is on sharp and cosmopolitan clothing, based on the kind of minimalism that the nineties have witnessed. But then, there are also reminders from the past, such as skirts reminiscent of the seventies, as party wear.

There are also the fifties’grandma styles and decorative flourishes with lace and ribbon, inspired largely by the films of yesteryear. Fancy headgear, shoes, belts and vanity bags are very much in keeping with the revivalist trend.

In fact, these so-called "lady-like styles of the good old days" are going back into the twenties with antique brooches and pendants in butterfly and dragon motifs (both spin-offs from the movie Titanic), flapper dresses and so forth-all very eclectic and versatile.

At the other extreme, the trendiest entrants in westernwear are pedal pushers and capri pants, worn with matching three-fourth sleeve lycra shirts, sleeveless velvet tops and military-style short-sleeve blouses in colours ranging from shiny mauve to virginal white.

Significantly, swimsuits are also making a big splash in fashion circles, especially with Hawaiian print bikinis worn with matching wrapover skirts and flattering princess line numbers worn with matching round-neck short-sleeve shirt.

Narrow banding or decorative details around legs, necks and shoulders, together with contrast waistbands and belts have taken these outfits beyond the realms of beachwear. The halter neck has returned too.

In all this, detailing with pin tucks, pleats, applique work, overstitching lace on stretch net and lining of sheer fabric with shimmery tissue are gaining prominence. Embroidery, whenever used, is subtle and intricate, be it with beads or glass, crystals or pearls.

For ultimately, it is with right accessorising that outfits in many a designer collection are getting noticed. Headgear options seem to range from ostrich feathers to Oriental crowns, besides fabricated metallic flowers, fresh foliage and tiaras.

The traditional kaleera tied to a bride’s waist is doubling as headgear in many designer ensembles, while fresh flowers are accessorised with wires entwined on legs and arms. Designers like Suneet Varma are using strings of pearls and swarovski crystals instead of fresh flowers.

Then there are designers like J.J.Vallaya, Tarun Tahiliani and Rohit Bal creating coordinated, embroidered footwear for their collections. A sparkling embroidered jooti is the accessory going with casual wear while high-heeled shoes are giving formals the right base. (MF)