The closing show at Amazon India Fashion Week Fall/Winter ’16 saw a mega lineup of designers. The theme for this year’s grand finale was India Modern. Nine well-known Indian designers presented five to six carefully curated looks. Each label presented a new spin on traditional textiles. Rajesh Pratap Singh opened the show with a continuation of his F/W ’16 collection ‘Gold Rush’. The garments were inspired by pichhwai paintings of Rajasthan, with gold motifs meticulously hand printed onto naturally-dyed indigo. Péro followed, with garments that employed block printing from Gujarat, woven fabrics from Benaras and Chanderi from Madhya Pradesh on functional pieces like maxi dresses and overcoats. Rahul Mishra’s line was a seamless extension of his show at Paris Fashion Week, with khadi evening gowns inspired by blue pottery motifs.
Abraham & Thakore showed an extension of their capsule collection Shimmer, where they play with bonding techniques and fuse gold and copper foils on to organic fabrics. Kediya kurtas from Gurajat were re-interpreted into contemporary silhouettes with hoodies. Rohit Gandhi + Rahul Khanna turned to Jaipur for inspiration, and featured jharokha prints (of Hawa Mahal), on jackets and pants. Samant Chauhan played with surface textures, and created asymmetrical and flared silhouettes.
Pankaj & Nidhi used silk ikats from Orissa in shades of pink and orange, to create wearable pieces like flared midi skirts and tops with fringe details. Anju Modi used crafts like zardosi, mirror work and block printing to make lehengas and crop tops, overcoats and asymmetrical skirts.
The soundtrack was upbeat too, with Gaurav Raina behind the console, and live vocals by Kavya Trehan and pandit Ajanna Prasad on the flute. Follow ELLE on Snapchat (elle.india) to catch up with all the live updates from the show, or flip through the gallery to check out all the looks!
Photographs: Gulshan Sachdeva
