The opening show at the Lakmé Fashion Week Winter/Festive 2015 by Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla kicked off the event with a high dose of glamour, at the Palladium Hotel. Presented by Ayush, the show was centred around the Hindi movie industry, and was titiled ‘Jawani Jaaneman’.
The glitzy décor at the Ballroom at the Palladium Hotel was reminiscent of the disco era of the 70’s and 80’s. So there were dozen mirror orbs, glass panels along the walls, spinning coloured spotlights. Models paraded nearly 120 garments, to the peppy beats of popular movie fare from that era, such as Raat Baki Baat Baki’, ‘Ramba ho’, ‘I Will Survive’, ‘Funky Town’, ‘What a Feeling’ and many more. Jesse Randhawa jived to the tunes of ‘Aaj ki Raat’
The show was divided into nine categories.
“Beetle Wings” – flouncy, pleated, ruffled gowns and fluid kaftans with multi coloured stone, and bugle bead embellishments. There was an emphasis on the yoke and silk taffeta layers for skirts to give a feminine luxurious look. An exotic jumpsuit with spiral multicoloured stones and beads was the highlight of the look.
“Resham Reloaded” – an ode to the draped romantic gowns with intricate resham thread work. – long sleeve, shirt-collar, silver gown, the exotic corset creation and the pants with long slit maxi added to the Red Carpet options
“Nouveau Lace-Lace” – cutwork, mirrors, sequins and loads of faux leather/rexine for sensuous gowns, saris and capes that recreated hippy rock star glamour, ruffled asymmetric blouses teamed with embellished Lehengas and an assortment of sexy white mini dresses some with long silk skirts. A pristine white wedding gown with silver embellishments came on the ramp to the hit song “I Will Always Love You” by the memorable Whitney Houston.
“Hearts” – sari embellished with appliqués and Swarovski crystals . Pale blue and pink saris with ruffles and pleats looked utterly divine and cholis were layered with cascading frills for added glamour.
“Jhallar” – drapes, devoted to sequins embellishments, which appeared for gowns with butterfly capes and sexy long maxis with tulle covers. Plunging necklines worked for slinky numbers and drapes over skinny pants gave the sari an interesting twist.
“Talk Tartan” was homage to Scottish checks recreated this time in Patti and sequins, abstract multi coloured strips gave the pleated long skirts, gowns, stunning ruffle appliqué top with a pencil slim skirt. For men it was black sequinned pants teamed with abstract multi-coloured striped jacket with a floor-length net coat.
“The Power of the Flower” emphasised a line of floral embroidery from the enchanted garden that came alive with thread work. The gorgeous rose and florals were seen on figure hugging jumpsuits, swirling poncho kaftans, long sleeved covers and beaded sequined gowns.
“Chamki Chikan” – chikankari in a shiny new avatar – sparkling with Swarovski crystals and sequins, white gowns with varying necklines, lehengas, cholis and for men bundgala jacket with regal coat.
“Sona” – only gold for a collection where 50 models with gold masks strutted down clad in glittering gold capes, saris, gowns, jackets, lehengas, cholis and swung to the beat of the hit number “Jawani Jaaneman”, which Parveen Babi made hypnotising in her sizzling hot gold catsuit.
Fabrics used were Duchess satin, organza and net. The colour card was about sedate white and neutrals to off-white, cream, beige and ash grey with hints of bright hues. The bling quotient was left to sequins, gold, silver and crystal embroidery to dazzle the audience.
