PARTIES are proving to be great occasions for turning out in the most bizarre and funkiest of dresses, which eventually become the talk of the town.

So you have Saturday night bashes where teenaged girls show up in micro-minis and cropped-hair boys come in expensive black shirts. Their mothers usually are in jeans and baseball caps and fathers in shorts and striped T-shirts.

On a formal level, there would be blood orange sarees, complete with gold brocade and matching silk parasols, while men would stand out in ridiculous tuxedos.

That, by current standards, is pretty amateurish. A designer like Wendell Rodricks, who specialises in party wears, comes up with variations in georgette tops with earth-dyed trousers and black linen georgette caps with pin-tucked collars, worn over fur-trimmed satin shirts.

For teenagers, the choice ranges from off-shoulder tunic sets, multi-coloured stoles to black V-front strapless kurtas, accessorised with mask shoes.

A new entrant to the Mumbai party circuit is the mussel-shell brassiere, worn with a beaded skirt tasselled with mussel shells and covered with an organza silk overcoat. The look is romantic, even avant garde, but not quite punkish.

This is precisely what designers of party wear are aiming at: making "celebratory" stuff that defies the rules of fashion, and yet does not go overboard.

For the more daring and adventurous, there are handmade paper-pulp blouses to be worn with satin trouser sets. Laser-treated plastic laminate inserts in loose shirts, silk veils and trapeze blouses worn on tassel or faux grass shirts belong to the genre of the bold and extraordinary.

Some designers betray a fetish for eatables.Wendell himself had his Goan line featuring coconuts stringed together as a swinging necklace over a cream tunic set. The show also featured off-white rice pearl chiffon sarees worn with a silk organza choli and hand-worked with gleaming rice pearls.

There are other ways to stand out in a crowded room while sticking to convention. Sarita Thakur has shown how the ordinary salwar-kameez can be jazzed up with graphic appliques, while Payal Singhla's ornate mirror-work on blouses worn with jewel-toned crepe sarees are known to brighten up any party.

Other common eye-catchers include the Indo-western mix-and-match of ghaagra/choli, harem pants, mini kurtas and waistcoats. In unconventional colours like beige, grey and jade and combined with dazzling tonal embroidery, the effect can be quite dramatic.

In menswear, Kaushik Shrimanker has become a trailblazer of sorts with a dazzling range of sherwanis, jodhpuris, kurtas and dhotis. They are fashioned out of Benares silk, tussar, shaheen and hand-woven silks, and carefully embellished with zardozi, beadwork, silk embroidery and elegant hand paintings.

One-of-a-kind hand-painted ties on semi-formal jute and linen shirts are also turning out to be must-haves for party-hoppers. Tight-fitting shirts in net, chiffon and rayon look smashing on well-toned bodies.

Rocky Singhvi has come up with a sporty look this season with close-fitting pinstriped trousers and jeans in a variety of colours to suit the wearer's personality. Teamed with skin-tight lycra T-shirts with stripes on the sleeves or down the front, the look is only for the rough and tough.

For the more conservative dresser, there are the traditional bandhgalas, but with embroidered collars, cuffs, yokes and panels. Worn over trousers and along with a jamevar, the combination is a definite attention grabber.

In western wear, the not-so-young can choose from a variety of jackets shirts, stylish blazers and pastel-shaded shirts to make their presence in any party. In fact, men have never had it so good, while making choices on what to wear for an occasion. (MF)