Snapshots from Indian Fashion Weeks

Fashion is tough business. Peel the glamour off, take away the heady rush of showcasing to an audience of fashion editors and buyers, exclude the frivolous air kissing and unhook the pain-inducing stilettos, and what you are left with is a handful of designers holding solemn promise. They delight the senses, venture into the recesses of dressmaking and tell stories of destruction, abstraction, celebration, and seduction - that's their job, and they do it well. Presenting assortment of backstage and runway shots from Indian fashion weeks held in Mumbai and Delhi in April this year. 
Shweta Shiware

Model Surelee Joseph with designer Kallol Datta

Fitting session in progress for Kallol Datta's show

Armour-inspired bracelet from Eina Ahluwalia's 

Love, Respect, Protect collection

Kallol Datta asked a few tough questions about 

Indian fashion's obsession with glamour, and all that's 

safe and convenient in a collection titled, Hazing

 Twenty five-year-old Rimzim Dadu used meshed 

metallic wires interwoven to form the hypnotic 

illusion of the traditional Ikat weave

Pics/Jagvir Matharoo

 Pankaj & Nidhi presented a 

collection inspired by 3D geometric motifs

Arjun Saluja doesn't bother with gender classification; 

he'd rather have raging volume interact with 

disproportionate lapels, disjointed shoulders, 

piping and pleats, or leave it breathless in drapes

Anand Kabra's personal sense of dressing is as eclectic 

as his chic/comfortable take on cumbersome Indian wear

Varun Bahl's designs from his all-black collection

NID graduate, Anand Bhushan juxtaposed complex 

decorations on easy silhouettes, as linear shapes 

were seduced by painstaking textures resembling worms, 

realised by scrunching fabrics and zipper placement 

Dev r Nil's menswear options combined western silhouettes 

spoiled by local, Indian textiles and techniques

Rohit Gandhi & Rahul Khanna's A-maze-ment collection 

offered modern clothing choices for women - 

open waistcoats teamed with wide-legged trousers, 

an assembly of tough dresses separated by graphic prints, 

sequins, colour blocking and laser-cut felts

Veteran designer Neeru Kumar has been championing 
the cause of Indian textiles and traditional techniques
for decades. She works with craftsmen tucked away 
in hamlets of West Bengal, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh

Aneeth Arora's married Indian textiles, 
prominently cotton, with flattering western shapes

Ashu & Jason explored quirks of cuts and prints

Gaurav Gupta rediscovered silicon. He spent time in the mundaneness of ink dripping on paper, milk foaming in a cup of tea, pirouetting cigarette clouds, and found himself "feeling emotionally inspired" to create a collection that quietly confirmed his authority on drapes

Sabyasachi Mukherjee is one of India's formidable designers.  Art, music, films and women of India inspire him. "Personalised imperfection of the human hand to make clothes that are an extension of one’s intellect,” is how the Kolkata-based designer described his collection. Pics courtesy/Sunday Mid Day