AIFW SS'17: Where Indian handlooms blended with luxury

The extravaganza, presented by the Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI) -- India's apex fashion body -- started on October 12 at the NSCI ground here in Okhla, and saw a exuberant finale on Sunday with nine designers presenting spectacular collections.

Apart from ace couturier JJ Valaya, stalwarts from the fashion industry including Samant Chauhan, Rina Dhaka, Rajesh Pratap Singh, Abraham & Thakore, Rohit Gandhi and Rahul Khanna, Pankaj and Nidhi and Masaba Gupta among many others came together for the five-day gala.

Trends that stood out at the Spring-Summer 2017 edition were layered looks, asymmetrical hemlines, off-shoulder tops and dresses, floor sweeping gowns, crop tops, flared pants, capes, saris and bomber jackets. There was a quirky element of edginess to the lines, while a dash of spunk was added by the use metallic colours like silver, copper and gold.

The collections saw an abundance of luxury through the use of fabrics, weaves, work, prints, intricate work of embellishments and zardozi infused with khadi, which stood out in designer duo Abraham & Thakore's collection. 

David Abraham from the designer duo told IANS that it was their way of paying a tribute to the "iconic fabric". 

"It was our way of giving a tribute to khadi. It is our way of saying this is khadi and let's look at it in a different way. Let's make it glamorous and fun. So we did a lot of metallic and logos in Hindi. It was like a fun collection," he said. 

There was also new-age designer Masaba Gupta, who is known for her extraordinary and quirky fashion prints like the lipstick, cow and camera print. This time she picked inspirations for motifs from different things.

"There is one caricature print which is inspired by the Mithila paintings from Bihar, others include an abstract Ganesha print, blob of print, pillars...The quirky, fun bit is only one print that we have done about these caricatures. It's not as edgy as the stuff in the past but more classic," Masaba told IANS.

The fashion gala, held by FDCI in association with Maybelline New York, turned out to be a platform for 63 designers, who showcased their collections at the five-day event through 30 shows.

On the business front, designer Samant Chauhan told IANS: "(Day four) was fantastic and rocking, but I think the international market is going down. But still, it doesn't affect our business."

Talking about the final day of the fashion-event, Chauhan shared: "Every season we have been doubling our orders for the last three years...But we know the market is tough, so we can't expect double orders. But yes, it's more than what we got last year."

The designer says he was looking for international buyers from the Middle-East like Kuwait, Riyadh and Dubai. 

In terms of the colour pallets, the designers chose to stick to pastels and soft hues and also played around with metallic colours like silver, copper and bronze with a sprinkle of orange, red, bottle green, pink and yellow.

The shows also saw some Bollywood glamour as celebrities like Nimrat Kaur, Athiya Shetty, Ileana D'Cruz, Vidyut Jammwal and Tisca Chopra turned showstoppers for the event.