Bold and The Beautiful

Much like this waist belt,several other body accessories have now garnered popularity. For instance,the label Outhouse has come up with ornate body harnesses this season; fashion designer James Ferreira has ventured into jewellery designing with a line of nail jewellery and three-in-one rings that drop on the side (around the knuckles),while Shruti Bheda’s label Blur Designs has a collection for ear cuffs and elaborate hair accessories. Suhani Pittie too has been winning people over with her metal belts,hairbands and ear buttons. Meanwhile,the haathphool (comprising a ring that flows into a delicate bracelet) — designed by Eina Ahluwalia,Amrapali and others — is become sought-after.

Today,jewellery designers are creating accessories that look beyond the usual. This shift,Pittie believes,is part of an attempt to reconnect with our cultural heritage. “There is a certain revisiting of history happening through jewellery ideas,whether it’s war-inspired knuckledusters or body harnesses or romance-inspired ear cuffs and hathphool,” she says. According to Arora,body jewellery has been part of tradition across countries and cultures. “For the longest time,gypsies have been flaunting their love for body jewellery items that are available in flea markets of Rajasthan and Goa. Similarly,in places such as Turkey,women are known to wear bold jewellery,including necklaces that travel from the collarbone to the navel. Rajeev Arora,founder of the brand Amrapali,concurs that jhoomars,maang tikas,haathphools and hair accessories have been part of Indian bridal wear for long but are now being contemporised. “With these items getting reinvented,they are now being worn not just with Indian dresses but also with Western ensembles,” he points out.

The promise of ‘something different’ has also worked well for this trend. In case of nail jewellery,women are known to paint their nails but wearing jewellery,even one’s initials,on one’s nails is not your run-of-the-mill stuff,nor is my design of a finger ring dropping around the knuckles,” stresses Ferreira. Perhaps this is why Manish Arora’s range of accessories for Amrapali,including haathphool,nose rings,neckpieces,belts,ear cuffs,bangles and headgears,has won an overwhelming response at the Paris Fashion Week. Nitya Arora’s recent experiment for her label Valliyan,where she designed a hand glove that is a cross between a biker’s glove and a haathphool dotted with stones and floral designs,too attracted attention. “The idea was to combine something delicate (haathphool) with something tough (biker’s glove),” she says.

Interestingly,it’s not just the youngsters who are warming up to these offbeat pieces. While Rajeev Arora vouches for the fact that Amrapali has a fair share of women in their 40s and 50s purchasing designs,the Hyderabad-based Pittie notes that most of her clients are around and above the age of 25. “These women are surer about themselves,” she says.