Dubai Fashion Week: Life's puzzles on fabric

The first set from the Mumbai Se segment of the Dubai Fashion Week took off with designer Ekta Singh's Spring/Summer 2012 collection.

Inspired by Rubik's Cube of Life, a part of the collection interpret the season's bold colour blocking and pleating theme in various forms.

"When you first buy a Rubik's Cube," says Singh, "it has all the colours on each side correctly aligned. But when you begin turning it, the colours mix up and soon one finds it difficult to bring it back in order. Life is a lot like this. It's filled with various colours of puzzling emotions and one's constant search for the right algorithm to twist the Cube of Life back in order."

Colour parade

The interplay of the cubes forming a colour parade is reflected in the outfits using colour block shifts to solid brights in contrasting colours.

"An additional touch of the embellished artwork adds to the overall appeal," she says. "This particular part of the collection includes resort wear and luxury prêt lines ranging from tunics to kaftans to evening dresses."

The designer hails from New Delhi, India, and says her clothes have always been inspired by heavy embroidery and embellishments as they are extremely popular in that part of the country.

Feminine

The second part of the collection had a very feminine, modern and trendy appeal. Singh used varying subtle shades to monochrome evening dresses. The key highlights of this section were the intricate details of the signature style jeweled embellishments, which bestow a spectacularly glamorous appeal to the garments.

Evening gowns, flowing pants and short dresses were in soothing colours like sea green, sky blue and ochre yellow and were interspersed with shimmering silver crystals on the neckline to add to the style quotient. Fabrics included French chiffon, net, tulle, silk chiffon and silk crepe.

Her show was much awaited and people lined up and waited outside the venue. The one-hour delay was duly compensated by the 48 garments on display along with violinist Elena's brilliant mix of music to the background music.

Ritu Raizada is a UAE-based freelance writer and stylist