Design Gallery

Three designer labels sought inspiration from art to brighten up the penultimate day of LFW.

From the collection of Payal Khandwala

ART IS the new black,” may have been Quirk Box’s Summer-Resort 2016 mantra, but Day Four at LFW proved that artists are fashion’s favourite fount of inspiration. While painter-designer Payal Khandwala had some external stimulus — Richard Serra minimal sculptures and Franz Kline’s play of negative and positive space —it was her artistic eye for shapes, colours and proportions that made her summer line a creative counterpoint.

With the starting point of her collection being her six-year-old daughter’s geometry homework, Khandwala played with form and function for a line high on the wearability. Circles, triangles and parallelograms intersected, as a fuchsia and coral colour-blocked silk sari met an olive green blouse, a steel grey tunic was teamed with citrine pants and a chartreuse perma-pleated cape was paired with blush palazzos. Chevron Banarasi brocades were fashioned into crisp trousers and suits, even a gorgeous magenta maxi skirt. All through the line of separates, Khandwala’s ease with garment construction, her flair for unanticipated colour combinations and deftness with juxtaposing fabrics and shapes, were visible. The accessories, which included leather belts and bags from in-house label Tachi and a specially-designed new line of brass and leather jewellery, added to the controlled geometric aesthetic.

In contrast, Masaba Gupta continued her print story and embraced different inspirations — the iconic works of Matthieu Venot (ace French photographer) and Katrin Bremermann (German artist) — and brought them together in her inimitable style. There were the proverbial bright prints — chillies, flowers, geometrics — but Masaba added a hint of newness with youthful styling, a vibrant colour palette and refined silhouettes. Tasselled earrings and accents were seen on pant-suits, wrap dresses, crop tops, dhoti skirts, drop-crotch pants and pre-stitched sari drapes, making this one of her most cohesive collections yet.

Resortwear designers Shivan & Narresh, took their interpretations of French cubist painter Fernand Leger beyond the limiting canvas of just their swimwear. Bright colours, abstract prints, metallic accents, stone embellishments and bits of brocade also covered dresses, palazzos, bomber jackets saris, gowns and lehengas. Going by these standout collections, looks like the term wearable art is set to take on a whole new meaning this summer.

Front and Centre
There was one star whose presence at LFW was unexpected but much applauded. Sanjay Dutt (pictured,below) came to catch Masaba Gupta’s show and, inadvertently, became the star attraction. While the audience was agog to see Munnabhai among them, the photographers’ pit went into an overdrive. Not only did Dutt pose for the flashbulbs, he even took a selfie with the photographers and sat down with them for a group picture.

Old is Gold
Reliance retail’s e-commerce portal Ajio.com was launched with the “Doubt Is Out” show on Saturday. Among the stereotype-shattering showstoppers that took to the ramp was yesteryear siren Helen. The one-time cabaret queen looked lovely in a navy tunic with cropped trousers and a printed stole (pictured, above). Other celebrities who joined her on the ramp included actor Sunny Leone, comedian Bharti Singh, transgender rights activist Lakshmi Narayan Tripathi and Suman Sharma, the first woman to pilot the MiG-35 aircraft.

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