By Meher Castelino
It’s been a while since Men’s wear has shown any seismic shifts in style barring some tinkering in lapel/collar/cuff shapes, trouser hems. Within the Indian context, traditional attire for formal occasions gets increasingly popular, even as the Indian male gets more adventurous and playful with colours, prints, fusion wear. What better place than Fashion Weeks to find out what our talented designers are recommending. Here’s what I spotted at the key fashion event held in Mumbai, the Lakmé Fashion Week Winter/Festive 2015.
How to be Trendy
Manish Bansal and Piyush Dedhia concurred that it’s fine to diffuse the stiff formal look. And had their men strut the runway in casual knit pullovers, semi-formal jackets, formal blazers and calf length coats teamed with ankle length pants, faux fur detailed collar, Kurta shirts teamed with a blazer. Nice. We liked the colour blocked shirts paired with striped blazers and ankle length trousers. Manish Malhotra teamed slim fit trousers with regular jackets, tuxedos. Gen Next’s Ajay Kumar’s collection called “Consonance and Dissonance” was about kitschy garments, a kaleidoscope of geometric patterns teamed with birds and beasts. Charchit Bafna and Nitin Chawla got the androgynous look with straight fitted trousers, short button less jackets, long deconstructed trench coats, prints/solids zippered jackets, slouchy Tees, camouflage battle jackets with interesting cargoes.
Traditional Grandeur
Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla’s “Jawani Jaaneman” collection went retro to the 70’s with sheer shirts and kurtas, and uber glitz with sequined pants, gold tasseled jackets, long ornate Sherwanis, and ruffled embroidered jackets. Manish Malhotra is a past master at the game, and for his “Gentlemen’s Club” line, he teamed slim fitted trousers with long Sherwanis. Bow tie and tuxedos with velvet shawl collars and strategically placed thread-work embroideries, bundgalas with embroideries on shoulder were all very glamorous and very festive.
Prints & Colours
Manish Bansal had the union flag print at the hem of ankle pants, paw prints on a blazer, two-toned T-shirt with a bulldog imprinted on each side paired with checked trousers, color blocked or checked patches. Color blocking ruled. Piyush Dedhia played with colour blocked shirts paired with striped blazers; and mixed-matched prints. Charchit Bafna had banana leaf prints. Ajay Kumar got colourful for his “Consonance and Dissonance” line of kitschy garments in intricate kaleidoscopic patterns, geometric patterns, prints of florals, birds and beasts. Arjun Saluja’s “Abandoned” theme perfectly played the smudgy abstract prints a grim grey, beige and black background. Ujjawal Dubey stuck to a one-colour palette and for visual ease interspersed with beige tones and stripes, with the focus on black.
Fabrics
The emphasis was on natural fabrics like wool, pure cotton, linen, poplin, all very breathable fabrics. Indigo Denim continues to mark its presence. Men’s suiting material worked for jackets and trousers. Leather pants were spotted too. There was jersey the snow friendly fabric.
Embellishments
Amalraj Sengupta’s men’s wear range had much of the textures created included indigo denims, which were embellished with colours of drains, oil stains, urban decay, polluted materials and blotches of grease. It also included protective wear in the form of waterproof lining, tanned and black leather patches, quilting and layering. Hints of metal leftovers from factories and discarded items were also sighted. The clear cuts and rigid folds were balanced with hard molten coatings made to resemble industrial waste. The designs were also well engineered with structural and crisply constructed lines that stabilized the soft and loosely fitted look for street wear. Nitin Chawla’s collection called ‘Opposites Attract’ used zips in contrasting colours, leather patches. Manish Malhotra chose to embellish his festive wear with the predictable gold zari and resham threadwork. Colour blocking and checked patches were popular and well received.
Tags : Lakmé Fashion Week Winter/Festive 2015, Men’s wear, trends, androgynous look
