Style debate

Mini

When you slip into a mini, make sure it looks sexy, not vulgar. What’s imperative is the way you carry it off. You have to be in excellent shape and your legs should be perfectly toned. What makes the mini the ultimate versatile pick is that you can wear its embellished, dressy avatar for a formal do and it even works for a casual afternoon lunch. It makes you feel good. The most important thing is that it helps you keep your body in check.

If you have an array of minis hanging in your closet, you can only think of rocking the look, is when you want to look a certain way. Otherwise, you’ll be insulting yourself and the mini. It reflects womanhood — you can wear it with either padded shoulders or in a low-back style. It’s timeless and feminine. Having said that, I’d like to add that the worst the way to wear it is to make it look vulgar. 

If you’re about to go out and contemplating what you’d like to wear then you put on a mini and you’re good to go. However, there are only a handful of people, who look spot-on in a mini and I’m glad to say that their number is growing now. A mini can also be unforgiving unlike a long dress or a salwar-kameez or a sari, you can get away with a lot. 

I don’t like my minis to be too mini. There’s a particular length which looks sexy and tasteful and it’s good to have a certain length. For me, it can’t be too short or too long. If you’re wearing it too short then it can’t be off-shoulder. There has to be a balance check.

It looks great with high heels and there’s no other way to wear it. Depending on the style of mini you can accessorise it with a sling, clutch or a Birkin.

Designer Monisha Jaising made a sequinned mini for me a long ago, which was formal and striking. The classic Herve Leger mini has been worn for decades. One of the pioneers of Indian fashion, Rohit Khosla made a mini for me, which I still have in my closet and it still fits me. A mini worn correctly is always a head-turner. In fact at times, I have taken a dress and made it into a mini because it looks better.

Gown

Given a choice, I would definitely choose a gown over a dress. For me, a gown is not necessarily a fussed-up look and can be tweaked to create multiple looks — ranging from luxe to functional. 

Having said that, it all depends on the occasion. For instance, I’d generally opt for my Mary Katrantzou gown with Gucci shoes or soften the look with a pair of tennis sho\es and lace. For a black-tie do, of course, I’d amp up the look by several notches and go all out. A gown gives you myriad styling options and you can play it up or down with a nifty accessory. My first gown was borrowed from my mom’s wardrobe and I could barely fit into it as she was thinner than I was. 

Over the years, one flirts with a vast array of styles and indulges in different stylistic experiments. What makes today’s stylescape exciting is the fact that there are no rules and one has the freedom to choose one’s own style.

Thanks to Alessandro Michele at Gucci, cerebral sexiness is back in fashion. His dresses and gowns can be worn at a black-tie and also to a casual dinner.  

He’s done a marvellous job at the label and made it intellectual, yet sensuous. It’s not proverbial ‘sexy’. Once you wear his gowns or dresses, you see the dramatic transformation. Also, Bibhu Mohapatra does some magical gowns and of course, it’s up to you how you want to wear them.

Apart from Valentino, Sarah Burton at Alexander McQueen have injected the present-day gowns with dark romanticism. Which girl wouldn’t want to wear a romantic gown with a dramatic train? I would love to wear a gown to an Indian wedding cocktail though I’d never go in the bandage direction. Also, I don’t do sari gowns well. Moreover, I try and avoid red as I feel it’s loud and screams (for attention?). 

I do wear a lot of short-length dresses, but currently, I’m not in the ‘mini’ state of mind. If the party or the host have specified ‘black tie’, you should respect it and wear a formal gown. I don’t think a gown is a prelude to “happily ever after”. The clothes you wear should be empowered by your personality, confidence and comfort in your body shape and gender.