(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) This week London's Victoria and Albert's Museum unveiled "Fabric of India". This is the first international exhibition to explore the rich heritage of Indian textile. And at home in India, fashion too has finally starting to value the importance of textile. For a long while Indian fashion was more about embellishment and embroidery, and less about fabric, fit and to some extent function.
Opening Amazon India Fashion Week yesterday in Delhi, was Sanjay Garg, a textile designer whose brand Raw Mango has given the woven a new modern context. Weave is the basis of everything he does, but he reinterprets motifs and colour with a fresh feel of contemporary chic. He ensures his weaves have an easy drape giving them fit and function.
This collection was all about "Mashru" weaves, and was the second tailored line Sanjay Garg has presented on the catwalk. And he showed a maturity, in terms of his finish, and also his understanding of shape. This about a new Indian minimalism. It was clean and simple and very demure. High necklines and long sleeves proved there is a sensual side to being covered up.
Mashru dates back to the 16th century. The word Mashru comes from the Arabic word for "permitted by law". Muslim men at that time were not permitted to wear silk, which was seen as unnecessarily decadent.
Mashru which was cotton on the inside and silk on the outside, meant that silk was worn without it touching the skin. Garg use of a rich jewel tone colour palette to reinforced the regal vintage feel of the collection.
This is intelligent fashion. The only downfall with "thinking" fashion is that it sometimes forgets how important that element of surprise is on the catwalk. Sanjay ticked all the boxes; it was a well thought out, beautiful made collection but it just seemed too predictable.
Sometimes designers need to push themselves out of their comfort zone, and this is something Sanjay seems weary to do. Probably because his collections are so well received by his loyal and growing clients.
It was a packed show, with every important editor sitting front row, as well Soha Ali Khan, Deepti Naval and Konkona Sensharma all applauding Garg as he took his bow.
This show reinforced Garg's cult status and the fact that textile really is the new "hero" of Indian fashion.
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