Summer of 146;06

Keeping with the romantic look, the colour palette for the season is soft and subtle. Natural tones and warm blush tints will be seen in the form of dusty pink, rose blush, lilac, lemon beige and cappuccino shades. But the big winner is white. In fact, this summer, white is the new black. And there is no modera-tion when it comes to whites. 8220;White shirts, blouses, trousers, dresses8230;.

From white on white to white with black trimmings, everything goes this summer,8221; says designer Varun Bahl. The other big winner, metallics, how-ever, are best used in accessories like bags and shoes.

In fabrics, as to be expected at sum-mertime, cotton rules the roost, along with romantic and whispery fabrics like chiffons, organza and taffeta. The alterna-tives are rich fabrics like silks and bro-cades. As for prints, they are big, bold and graphic. 8220;Look out for geometrical patterns, along with oversized flowers and African motifs,8221; says fashion de-signer Monisha Jaisingh.

As with everything in fashion, there are two contrary silhouettes for the sea-son. One is the voluminous silhouette, minus all the layering seen in the last season. For fuller Indian bodies, vol-ume as a trend has to be approached with care. It can be seen in skirts and dresses. Says designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee: 8220;The tiered skirts of last season are out, but we8217;re still looking at fuller silhouettes in skirts, with A-lines and with hemlines kissing the knees.8221; The second hot silhouette is a clean, uncluttered, pared-down look with

straight lines. Sabyasachi has chosen to show this silhouette in a line of shirt-dresses. Shirtdresses are a favourite to beat the heat this summer and have been used extensively by Gaultier, Stella McCartney and Marc Jacobs.

Skinny and pencil pants are another staple for the pared down silhouette. The big story for the season? It8217;s dresses all the way. 8220;It is the year of the dress. They are easy, summery and fem-inine.

All the dresses for 2006 have sleeves, from cap sleeves to three quar-ters,8221; points out designer Ranna Gill. Internationally, dresses have been in-spired by the geisha look, from the film Memoirs of a Geisha. As kimonos got reinterpreted into mod dresses, the Japanese look is ruling the roost. Jais-ingh and Gill have chosen to use inspi-ration from the 8216;Land of the Rising Sun8217; in wrap dresses and wrap tops. All in all, summer 2006 promises to be easy, adaptable and very, very fash-ionable. So revamp your wardrobe if you haven8217;t already.

8226; This summer is all about the softer, victorian look. so there8217;s a plethora of pleats, bows, ruffles

8226; The colour palette is soft and subtle. big winner is white. it is the new black, say fashionistas

8226; It is the year of the dress. they are easy and feminine with sleeves8212; from cap sleeves to three-quarters

8226; Internationally, dresses have been inspired by the geisha look. kimonos have returned with a modern look