Ace fashion designer Manish Malhotra’s ‘Portraits’ showcase at India Couture Week (ICW) in New Delhi on Sunday was a blend of vintage embroidery on contemporary silhouttes. Bollywood’s young talents Alia Bhatt and Aditya Roy Kapur were the showstoppers.
The wooden, three-ramp set-up was elaborate, with a chandelier and stylish tea light holders lining the divisions between the ramps. The walls were adorned by different-sized empty frames — denoting the line’s title.
Models walked the ramp in exquisite creations which brought to life different expressions of gold — from antique vintage gold to old-world yellow gold and more.
On multiple pieces, the designer has used an ethereal touch of Kashmiri zari (a type of gold thread) work. Some of the zari work is coupled with elaborate ivory thread work set against the backdrop of colours such as beige, grapevine, emerald, ruby red velvet and tulle.
Malhotra said: “It has a very old world charm...old world, intricate embroidery. It took a lot of time. A lot of pieces took inhouse hand embroidery work of about three to four months. I thought that the whole take was modern. And by the title, we were talking about portraits which are really timeless. Tonight is one such timeless moment. It’s the first time Aditya and Alia are coming together.”
Alia’s costume
Bhatt, who is riding high on the success of Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania, wore a heavily embroidered, red lehenga (skirt). Roy Kapur was dressed in a heavily embroidered gold sherwani (a knee-length coat).
More than the showstoppers, what was intriguing was Malhotra’s use of mirror work in the line; his idea of using zari embroidery on a ‘turtle’ neck of a blouse; and the attention to detail on the work on the back of the costumes.
The show was welcomed by the audience, which also included celebrities and socialites such as Shahnaz Hussain, Vandana Luthra and Ayaan Ali Khan. How could Bollywood be behind? There were Urmila Matondkar and Huma Qureshi in the audience too.
Overall, Malhotra summed it up by saying: “The collection is speaking of Indian couture and bridal. The mirror work is a statement this season, and we are happy to use vintage red — the old world, bright red. [There are also colours such as] gold, emerald green and ruby red,” he added.
