From India To Moscow, With Love
With FDCI’s Khadi and Samant Chauhan shows, Indian fashion stood out amidst a sea of designer collections at Moscow Fashion Week
As they say, it was a sight to behold!
Moscow Fashion Week is not for beginners – with each edition, it’s getting bigger, better and beyond incredible. There’s so much happening at all times, you literally need to take a breather (or more), sit down and maybe, drink a tall glass of bubbly. Overwhelming doesn’t even begin to describe it – it is full on fashion fever!
Sitting in the front row, I was waiting with bated breath. It had been a couple of days in the city, and I’d been put through the fashion grind. Sensory overload and how. And yet, my spirits were high for this was the show we’d all been waiting for. Not just me, coming as I was from India, but even media delegates from other countries. Everyone wanted to see what Indian designers were going to showcase. They all were eager, brimming with excitement and expectations. If I were nervous, I tried my best to not show, and the freezing Moscow weather allowed me to ‘freeze’ my face well.
And then it happened. Lights out, music cued in, lights on and it was showtime.
One after another, models sashayed down the runway, looking absolutely resplendent. Two shows organised by the Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI), and both were pure art, or as art clothes can be.
First, it was the Khadi show. Or as I’d like to call it, Khadi putting all other fabrics to shame. For everyone who may have never associated it with ‘fashion’ (rather uninformed of them, might I add!), the show was a wonderful example of what the khadi can do, and how beautifully it can be used to create exquisite looks.
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Organised by FDCI, in collaboration with Khadi India – Centre of Excellence for Khadi (CoEK), established by the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), Ministry of MSME, the collection merged India’s textile traditions with global fashion trends. From dresses to capes and trousers, the clothes were khadi in a never-seen-before avatar. The colours, in particular, were an absolute stand-out. So were the fabrics, including cotton, wool and Eri silk, from Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Assam.
To see Khadi shine at an international stage was indeed a source of joy and pride. It was an unforgettable moment, and I was glad to witness it.
Then came Samant Chauhan.
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The designer who is known for his work with Bhagalpur silk and cotton presented his predominantly-white collection, aptly titled White Nights, inspired by Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s short story of the same name. Dresses of all silhouettes and styles dominated the runway in shares of white and ivory, with embroidery that added a dream-like drama. It was all things angelic, to be honest, and I couldn’t help but be swayed.
The collection was Chauhan’s ode to women, those who dream and defied. Women who exuded purity while also displaying defiance. The clothes wonderfully carried all those emotions, and going by the awed looks on the audiences, everyone was swept along.
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Indian designers have been making waves across shores for a while now. They’re admired for creating outfits deeply rooted in Indian traditions as much as they’re revered for presenting clothes that are as international as it gets. The collaboration between FDCI and Moscow Fashion Week is another sign of the world’s growing interest in all things India.
I came back from Russia exhausted, exhilarated and ecstatic. 3 days spent at Moscow Fashion Week surely taught me one thing – when it comes to fashion, no one does it quite like India!