Add a twist to your cocktail dress

With umpteen number of weddings, pre and post cocktail parties in the pipeline in the next few months, designers are diving into their creative pool to ensure that each one looks different from the other.

The trick to looking different, designers assure, is not in picking a never-before-seen outfit but in incorporating a few twists to make it look like a smartly planned out ensemble.

Fashion designer and stylist Sabbah Sharma says that one can make a simple backless dress look stylish by dangling neckpiece at the back. “Just make sure that you attach the two ends to the sideseams of the dress. You can also wear a belt with loads of brooches on the upper-bust to jazz up an otherwise boring long tube gown.”

Designer duo Alpa and Reena advocate a popular trend — that of draping a shawl on a simple top and clipping a smart blingy broach to hold it together.

Television actor-turned-fashion designer Shraddha Nigam digs into her own experiences. “In my college days, I used to wear biased, A-line or flared cut skirts as tube dresses. For most of us, the lower-waist is measured exactly as the upper-chest. One can leave the skirt as it is, fasten it at  the upper-waist or under the bust with a belt or a scarf,” she suggests.

Shraddha once wore a plain black sherwani and jazzed it up hooking her earrings as buttons on the collar: “You can similarly dress up simple kurtas and sherwanis.”

Designer Kaanch Advani lists simple tricks that help create a niche look for a cocktail party. “If you have settled on a sexy cocktail sari, then the trick is to highlight the waist. It is the most sensuous part of a woman’s body, yet, women tend to focus on enhancing their necklines and arms instead,” says Kaanch suggesting that an intricately crafted multi-layered neckpiece can be wrapped as a kamar bandh.

“It just changes the look of the outfit, especially if worn over a solid sari. One can also wear a maang-tikka in a slightly non-traditional way by hooking it at the side of your head instead of the centre. You can even use it as a brooch,” she ends.