The Voice of Fashion
Shining jewels, clothes as baubles and guests as stars—Manish Malhotra’s couture week party shone bright. But repeating the formula would shed its weight. Here’s why
Last Saturday, fashion’s few in Delhi, who had invites from designer Manish Malhotra for his couture week party complained of raised excitement levels. A WhatsApp video sent as an invite from Manish Malhotra World, with the designer as its cheerful face, billed the show as a ‘Couture Cocktail Evening’. It reminded guests that good times were around the corner, that this was a reimagination of the couture show format and there would be no formal runway.
Admittedly, I cannot claim surging adrenaline when it comes to fashion weeks, fashion shows or fashion parties because one can only get excited so much in life. And the dear adrenaline in my head and body has moved its loyalties to other spectator sports. The other admission is I have no sharpened view or review of fashion parties, as over the years, I have gone to great lengths to miss as many as I can—especially those conjoined with fashion and couture weeks. Why did I go to this one then, you may ask, exasperated with my poor skills at supporting fashion partying.
Well, for Manish Malhotra, the man himself. He is among the most cheerful, warm mannered and faultlessly spoken persons in the industry. Regardless of the commercial success and notice he holds today from Mumbai’s top citizens to Cannes and the Met Gala red carpet, or the way his retail, couture and jewellery businesses have buzzed, or the glamourous halo of his Bollywood friends. Some will care much for these flourishes, but I respect Manish’s immaculate manners above it all. He is neither condescending nor self-deprecating. He is boyish in his thrill for what he does that supports factually cross-checked (by me) hearsay about him rising before the sun and getting down to work. But still, would you go to a famous designer’s party for his work ethic?
Well, I did. As a journalist who keeps wry questioning always at hand, I found the format—call it couture cocktail evening or Manish Malhotra party—a fun way to underline his worth and work than a show may have.
Ode to the Archival
For one, the saturation in Indian couture (and I don’t just mean the perpetuation of lehenga-cholis) itself is a demon that needs new clothes. Collections with glittering couture have their value, as we are told in the bridal market and the rise of vanity fare in the world. But its appeal, when seen in large collections, is limited.
Malhotra did the smart thing. He put archival pieces from memorable appearances in his garments (leading with his own, the most recent at Met Gala this May), on a ramp-like platform. Rekha’s ensemble for the much talked about Vogue Arabia cover from two years ago, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s sindoor-headlined white Banarasi ensemble for Cannes this year and Natasha Poonawalla’s Parsi Gara haute couture gown-corset for this year’s Met Gala. Then there were pieces from Hindi films where Malhotra designed the costumes, including Kajol’s parrot green lungi-choli from Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge more than 25 years ago—the first inflection point for Manish, the Bombay boy with dreams to become a star designer. Some of these pieces were recreations of original designs. The jewellery the house of MM now makes was displayed separately on mounts.
The party, attended by the well-dressed, the outright glamorous and the flashily dressed of Delhi (and some from other cities), had been fattened in numerous ways. Good food, better alcohol and live performers—Canadian singer Jonita Gandhi of Love Like That belted enjoyable music and DJs Lush Lata and Kayan, raised the decibel of the evening, drowning fashion déjà vu. You couldn’t hear yourself—just as well, I told myself to shut up and enjoy.
Grazing tables were laden as they usually are, showcase mules of prosperity and excess. Among the interesting aspects of the evening were screens that played audio-video excerpts from Malhotra’s past shows. You want to see how garments wore their designers and suffered their showstoppers in the past? Take a stab.
Seating on the sides, not enough as the number of guests competed with the flowers used to deck the grazing tables. A flowing bar with chirpy bartenders—ask me, since I am vertically challenged and nobody easily notices me when I queue up for drinks and music—made a heady concoction.
Bombay in Delhi Vibe
The fashion party is no small event today—it requires booze and food sponsors, event managers and venues, well-known collaborators insisting on logos, social media heft, performers, and guest lists to rival the last designer who tried something like it. It is not the frothy, easy bash with ‘let’s bitch about ourselves and our industry affairs’ that were held in the glorious past after fashion shows—the revelry, the ruthless ways to have fun, the rogue getaways. Those days are over. Here the sponsor is the CEO of the “vibe”.
“I found the format—a fun way to underline Malhotra’s worth and work than a show may have.”
Okay, so I didn’t attend the ones in the glorious past, but how do you think I survived as a fashion journalist without finding out (through credible sources) stuff that went on?
But Manish Malhotra’s was an arms-open, fun affair. Delhi wore Bombay in vibe and those who didn’t have party-ready Manish Malhotra clothes like me, wore his spirit.
There was a brief burst of a show with models wearing his couture that I couldn’t quite see—even though the ramp (not an official ramp, as Malhotra would say) was higher than human heels and the models are tall people. Brazilian model Alessandra Ambrosio, a Victoria’s Secret spokesmodel, was a knockout.
Malhotra thanked everyone profusely from atop the ramp, mic in hand. Was there a lot of serious glamour? Seriously, I would say some. The ambition of the market to buy big was certainly at this party, hair and makeup in place. Did we get a complete view of the depth of Malhotra’s business across fashion-couture-jewellery-films-home? No.
Can this formula be repeated by Malhotra himself or other designers? I doubt it, because every party, however big and bold and joyous, has a short life. It is a moth and will fly to the flame. Now let the flame tell us to ignite fashion in other ways than show after show after show.
