The week’s been about Anna Hazare, of course. Even the normally aloof, self involved fashion world was willingly pulled into the zeitgeist, with supporters sporting the trademark caps and ‘I am Anna’ slogans either watching shows or posing for pictures at the fashion week in Mumbai which concluded Sunday.
Mumbai’s week in fashion may be over, but Style season’s just beginning — in the run up to Eid/Diwali/ Xmas and the Wedding calendar, there is more fashion to follow. Next up — the men’s week in the Capital, starting next week, which will see women designers also showcase menswear. To be followed of course, by the second edition of the seasonal fashion jamboree in the capital — the next instalment of Delhi’s fashion week.
And with so much fashion pouring out of everywhere (putting even the monsoon to shame, it’s still not raining that much) how can the global scene be left out? London proudly preened as a survey crowned it the global style capital, courtesy the impossibly well turned out Duchess Catherine of Cambridge.
And yes, courtesy the late Alexander McQueen posthumously still eliciting the oohs and aahs as the haute monde fawned over his fashion retrospective Savage Beauty, which triumphed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, ending last month.
And while on the topic of global fashion, since that’s what’s top of mind in the entertainment world at present, there’s also no stopping that uber permissiveness that goes with the territory — so we see 19-year-old gender bender model Andrej Pejic at it again, wowing style mavens with his androgynous appeal. A men’s mag had voted him the 98th sexiest woman and he now graces the cover of New York magazine’s fashion issue, as ‘the prettiest boy in the world.’
Of course, fashion’s permissiveness can be pushed to extremes. So we have reports citing the most unusual case of upmarket US retail label Abercrombie and Fitch actually wanting to pay a person (party boy Michael Sorrentino) not to wear the brand because it would affect its aspirational image.
If the high end brands there are demonstrating a certain restraint and obduracy, trends in menswear here have embraced just the opposite — free spiritedness, as the Mumbai week tipped its hat to pop colours for men, go- go, neon, what have you. About time too, B-Town too appears happy to please with the colour burst for ze boys — movies releasing now are styled dramatically vivid.
For menswear at present, the future’s so bright, we gotta wear shades and all that. Ask Sallu bhai, who’s gonna go the whole nine yards next week, pull out all stops to see if that Eid release can match up to the thunder of his past three blockbusters. Today sees up to four smaller releases, but Da Bang Khan is who everyone’s priming for — all eyes on coming Wednesday, then.
