From Mother Nature to weavers, designers used the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week Spring-Summer (WIFW SS) 2015 as a platform to pay tribute to them. However, the gala, where technology met fashion, was low on B-Town glam.The fashion gala, which concluded Sunday, saw participation of 124 designers, out of which some drew inspiration from Kashmir, Assam and Benares and also from Japan, China and Africa.Opened by Aneeth Arora, her collection had summer-friendly pieces like cotton khadi dress, shorts, chanderi tops, blue denims as well as cotton and silk shirts in colours like white, blue, green and orange.
Oriental inspiration was part of designers like Alpana Neeraj and Atsu Sekhose collections and they even familiarised the attendees with Japanese culture on the runway. If Japan-inspired creations grabbed eyeballs, the nomadic culture of Xining, capital of northwest China's Qinghai Province, was the focal point of Urvashi Kaur's spring-summer line. She made extensive use of tassels, pom-poms, tapes and ribbons on garments, which had a lot of Chinese-inspired necklines. Nachiket Barve's show transported the attendees to Africa. Fascinated by the continent, Barve came up with the "Kalahari" collection, an atypical tribal wear it had everything that decodes fashion - front slit skirts, palazzos and more.Mother Nature inspired Gauri and Nainika's collection. With a modern and stark silhouette, the collection was primarily designed in the striking colours of earth like white, blue, green and shades of grey was an ode to nature.
Organised by the Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI), the five-day event was held at Pragati Maidan here. Even Kavita Bhartia collection's was "an ode to master artisans and karigars". Denim, which has returned to the ramp, was the focal poing of Rajesh Pratap Singh's collection. He also made sure that the weavers, whom he addressed as his "colleagues", actively participated in the show. The collection brought forward Singh's love for raw selvedge denim made with pure natural indigo. In the fashion circuitm, stoles are considered trendy, but this time Poonam Dubey and Chhaya Mehrotra made our own "desi gamcha" a fashionable. The traditional 'gamcha' (cotton stole), a must have for people in the states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, got a fashionable twist.
This time there were two off-site shows too - on the opening, Tarun Tahiliani braved dust storm for his show at DLF Emporio and wowed fashionistas with colourful and artistic ensemble.His clothes had lots of draping in blue and orange hue; red with yellow and more. Inspired by the works of London-based artists Amrit and Rabindra -- The Singh Twins, Tahiliani's range reflected elements from their paintings.The grand finale, held at Quli Khan's tomb with Qutub Minar as its backdrop, by Rohit Bal was truly larger than life. The Kashmiri designer presented "Gulbagh", inspired by the rich and the lush Mughal gardens in the valley.
However, the Bollywood quotient was not so overwhelming.Arjun Rampal walked for Bal, while Aditi Rao Hydari turned showstopper for Payal Singhal, singer-actress Monica Dogra for Kanika Saluja and tennis star Sania Mirza turned heads in designer Ritu Pande's creation.
Evergreen actress Rekha, though didn't make her presence at the fashion gala, Wendell Rodricks paid homage to the icon through his collection.Neha Dhupia, who was the Twitter face of Wills Lifestyle, tweeted live from the venues.Apart from that there were other initiatives taken to mix technology with fashion.The FDCI launched the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week app in partnership with Sent.ly for Android Play Store with an aim to connect designers with visitors at the event.
A Wills Fashion Drone was also seen flying over the venue and capturing the best moments of the fashion week.Wills Fashion Tag (Radio-frequency identification - RFID) was back for the second time. Through RFIDs, fashionistas at the venue were spotted sharing stories of their WIFW experience with their friends on social-networking sites. They could click a selfie, tell friends about what they're up to and what their mood was.If that was not enough, Wills Rock the Ramp - 360 Degree Selfie was another initiative that attracted the attendees. Fashionistas were seen flocking towards the selfie booth that had a mechanical arm fitted with a Go Pro camera, which rotated and captured a 360 degree video.