Designer Sanjay Garg of the Raw Mango brand did what he is best at - bridge the gap between textile and fashion when he opened the Spring-Summer edition of Amazon India Fashion Week (AIFW) 2016 here on Wednesday.
His re-interpretation of Mashru, a mix of silk and cotton, made the 'old' textile contemporary.
The five-day fashion event started at the NSIC Ground, Okhla with models donning fuss free saris, lehengas, wide sleeved blouses, long kurtas and salwars in bright colours like pink, green and red from Garg's Mashru collection.
The collection, which mostly had hand embroidery, emphasised on straight and angled cuts. There were no curved lines making the silhouettes clean and simple.
"The collection was made in Banaras. The garments presented technical advancements in Mashru that make the 'old' textile contemporary, while retaining the luxuriousness that has always been an important part of it.
"It's very geometrical. The sleeves are also wide. The pieces can be worn as separate garments. You can walk around and work wearing my creations," said Garg, who doesn't do projects on the basis of trends.
The look of the models was also very neat. With no heavy jewellery or loud make-up or elaborate hairdos, the models looked very traditional and simple.
"Braiding and oiling hair are very common in India. There is a certain pride in sporting that look and well tied hair doesn't create any obstacle while working," he said.
The designer, who made his AIFW debut, also brought fresh music on the stage. With no lyrics or instruments, a group of people just used their voice, hands and feet to produce melodious sound to entertain the packed audience.
"I wanted music without boundary. I didn't want any genre restriction like folk, pop or rock. So, there was a bit from Bengali weddings and some inspiration from Africa and more. This way the music belongs to everyone," said the designer.
His garments were definitely the stars of the show, but one couldn't skip Bollywood beauties Konkona Sen Sharma, Mini Mathur, Deepti Naval and Soha Ali Khan who applauded the collection from the front row.
