Hot Chocolate Nudge

The term The New Democrazy was unleashed by designer Tarun Tahiliani last year with his Spring-Summer collection at the Wills India Fashion Week.

Tarun Tahiliani

The term The New Democrazy was unleashed by designer Tarun Tahiliani last year with his Spring-Summer collection at the Wills India Fashion Week. So on Friday,when his new mens collection walked at the Van Heusen Mens Week 2011 in Delhi,the collection note reminded everyone that the designer still lived in a democrazy. Tahilianis is a republic of drapes. A group of turbaned and moustached qawwals from Rajasthan,their uplifting Sufi music with rustic underpinnings enthralled the audience as male models walked without fuss or fanfare in draped jackets,waistcoats and tunics. Modern fakirs or World travellers added Tahiliani on his note,obliged perhaps to coin new clichés like new trends every season. But if you looked carefully,there was indeed a sense in the styling,the Fakir temperament of their wears made evident in the way they carried off the elitist,socially wearable versions of Jodhpurs and twisted drapes. Shades of taupe,greige,cinnamon,tiramisu,frozen black forest and ecru snuggled into black,the dominant hue of Tahilianis India Reinterpreted.

If a fashion show must indicate a phase of the designers creative mind and the times he lives in,Tahiliani tells us that the world will always love the old,the classic,the unostentatious. Yet,democrazies will be about swagger and pleasure. But once that dominance is clear,there is plenty of room for contemporariness,suggested in the way a man combines a plain Rajasthani jutti with a cropped black trouser with a structured jacket. Or,a cotton linen kurta with a stretch wool trouser and Roman sandals. Some garments were delicately embroidered in colours of the fabric; others texturized to reveal luxurious craft. It was a Tall,Dark and Handsome collection.

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