Girls just wanna have fun

While it is true that LIFW was educational in other ways (for example, in how many different ways is it possible to pass off the same A-line skirt, or the same sari and that too in only marginally different colours?), it also showed quite nicely, to misquote Bertie Wooster, What The Well-Dressed Indian Woman Is Wearing.

It appears that, if your wardrobe is full of beads, sequins and hippy skirts, your luck is in.

You may have had a rough time of it in the businesslike nineties, when everyone was trying to pretend the eighties had never happened, and overcompensating madly with sensible shoes and trousers that started about six inches higher than they should have, but now you are officially in style.

Oh, and another bit of good news "" the poncho has finally gone (something else that makes the whole Suneet Varma /Aki Narula "controversy" so baffling).

One thing that goes hand in hand with this dressing desi is the need to accessorise.

No one can go completely desi unless they're wearing chunky silver jewellery (a huge hit at LIFW, think Rohit Bal or Anuradha Vakil; Bal's jewellery, courtesy Amrapali of Troy fame, was set off beautifully by his all-white collection, and Vakil's was also well paired with simple prints and earthy colours) or, at the very least, beads (long strings of beads were used by designers such as Ranna Gill and Suneet Varma to complement their gypsy fixation on the ramp).

Apart from jewellery, what else is goes with layered skirts and flirty summer dresses? If you're going to go by what Manish Arora has to say, it's all about handbags.

"Handbags, handbags, handbags," he says, slightly hysterically, at his stall at Lakme India Fashion Week. "If you're talking about accessories, handbags are what's in."

Arora was not the only one who thought so; handbags were as much a part of the ramp this year as the models themselves.

And they came in all sizes and shapes ""large, chic and solid-looking; long jholas (the Bengali art student look from Sabyasachi); or tiny little sequined purses.

"At the moment, bags are moving towards clutch ons in evening wear and long slung ones in casual wear," agrees designer Anjana Bhargava.

Many, though, are also moving in a more flamboyant direction, for instance Malini Ramani, who used feathers and beads to dress up her bags.

And since we're talking accessories, we might as well talk shoes. The emphasis this season is mostly on comfort.

We don't want to totter along precariously on stilettos anymore; we want to plod along comfortably, and also we want to kiss corns and blisters goodbye (although not, obviously, literally).

"A new shape has just been launched, where the sole of the sandal is moulded according to the shape of the feet. The foot fits snugly, and the whole effect is one of pure comfort," says a representative from Preview, a shoe store in New Delhi.

But when we say comfortable, we don't mean sensible (read: ugly) "" we also want shoes that stand out, have lots of glitter or colour.

Retail stores are thinking more in terms of silver and gold, or bright summery colours, and flowers as add-ons.

Retail stores such as Preview ( with shoes ranging from Rs 1,300-3,500) have made this their focus, and Ashley, a brand of woman's footwear has recently introduced its Vanilla Moon line (be prepared to pay in the vicinity of Rs 3,000), which features jewelled footwear "" shoes studded with gold, silver, pewter and copper beads, sequins and rhinestones.

This was also seen in terms of Swarovski crystals at LIFW, where designers like Rina Dhaka, Virendra Kumar and JJ Valaya used crystals in their clothes, shoes, belts and elaborately embellished handbags.

According to Sanjay Sharma, country head, Swarovski, "We've finally moved beyond our fixation for gold. Crystal today is emerging as the next big thing, especially since it already has a built-in trust in its name, and therefore adds that much value to the garment or accessory."

Apart from crystal, Swarovski is also producing pearls, jumping on another trend that made the shadowy beginnings of a guest appearance at LIFW, in the shows of designers like Shantanu & Nikhil Mehra and Tarun Tahiliani.

This emphasis on crystal, pearls, fur on bags and general flamboyance is the herald for a larger trend: that of faded luxury.

This showed up at fashion week in the guise of chiffons, velvets and silks, in the shows of Rohit Gandhi and Rahul Khanna, Anjana Bhargava, Raghavendra Rathore, Manish Arora and Tarun Tahiliani among others.

Given this, if you're wondering how to accessorise, know that little fur (faux of course) jackets, beaded sandals, drop earrings, or anything that shimmers or shines (as long as you don't look like a Christmas tree) works: the mantra for this summer is to create your own style statement "" whether you're going for faded chic, like Sabyasachi, or gypsy multihues, like Ritu Kumar, or Ranna Gill, as long as it's not boring, anything goes!