Vintage Fantastique & A Victorian Draupadi

An old piano in a corner,a dusty portrait on a wall,a few hundred potted plants,numerous wine and champagne bottles on tables and a vintage chandelier in the fore. All this and some haunting piano solos set the stage for ace designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee’s show on Day One of PCJ Delhi Couture Week in Delhi on Wednesday night. He romanticises the past,makes the reluctant soul travel with him across the world and narrates a story with every garment on the runway.

Mukherjee evoked a sense of familiarity,not with the clothes,but with the influences,as models walked the ramp in flapper dresses (worn by women in ’20s Europe),Mughal coats,ghararas,Nehru jackets,angrakhas,kedia blouses and the usual fare of lehengas and saris. The men flaunted sherwanis paired with churidars and safas,and shawls. His affair with khadi continued with this range,and we are not complaining. Apart from his favourite fabric,he used toile,cotton velvet,lace,tulle,velvet and silk. Mukherjee’s latest couture collection titled “Opium” was a traveller’s delight with his influences borrowed from West Bengal,Sanganer,France and Uzbekistan with pit stops at Agra,Kashmir,Rajasthan and Karnataka.

The designer maintained one colour throughout — a smattering of gold — punctuated with splashes of black,off white,dull blue and pink. While each piece was a work of art in its own right,it was clever layering that gave the ensembles an edge. So there were saris teamed with coats,Nehru jackets with scarfs and ghararas with flapper dress-influenced waist coats. Intricate embroideries justified the word “couture” and “Opium” was all about fine tilla work on velvet saris,zardozi and patchwork on waistcoats,applique work on coats,crewel work on kurtas and sequins and mirror work on dupattas.

The fat spectacles and big,round bindis — reminiscent of Mukherjee’s previous shows — were missing and the models instead sported tiny black dots on the forehead,dunked in jewellery from head to toe. Mukherjee not only designs clothes,he weaves memories and leaves the audience spellbound.