Presenting your first fashion show at Lakmé Fashion Week is a delicate tightrope walk. Do you stun the critics with your creative genius (fashion veterans of a certain vintage will remember Varun Saldanha) or lure the buyers with your commercial chops like alumni Nachiket Barve and Masaba? At Lakmé Fashion Week’s Gen Next show, the fresh batch of hopefuls decided that wearability was their guiding principle.
The Bengal influence was strong in Soumodeep Dutta’s draped silhouettes, black-white-red and handspun fabric conjuring up images of summers in Shantiniketan. The village landscape fell away as The Pot Plant snapped back to urban reality: easy-to-layer cotton separates in relaxed silhouettes, the kind that encourage you to swap your office brogues for heels and jewellery for post-work drinks.
Nakita Singh layered black and white with intricate embroidery and fringe detailing, softening the stark colours with touchable fabric. Poochki proved its penchant for whimsy didn’t end with a name, debuting diaphanous separates with more-is-better volume.
ArcVsh wrapped things up with a mature, commercial collection of floral embroidery on indigo dresses and jumpsuits.
You’d best acquaint yourself with these names quickly, you’ll be wearing them soon enough.
Gen Next at Lakmé Fashion Week Summer/Resort 2017 Day 1
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