RAGHAVENDRA RATHORE: MAHAL KI MODE
Prasad Bidapa, John Abraham and David Whitbread

In one of the more focused Pret collections this week, Raghu brought his Jodhpuri style to a simple, shapely collection. Narrow drainpipe pants and fitted shirts, pure and effective in pewter grey, muted black and then jived up with injections of shocking pink, a cerulean blue, a deep crimson.

These are of course the colours you see worn and used by the people around Jodhpur: it’s the Rajasthani palette and it’s good, if not unusual, to see it thus used.

As for the Jodhpuris, frightfully elegant but not for those with toothpick legs or without access to calf implants (oh, how we need the latter in India especially in these times of three-quarter pants which make so many wearers’ lower halves look like houses on stilts).

The Jodhpuris were worn with sherwanis, bandhgalas and jackets that often had insets of moleskin and grosgrain. Signature Chinese brocade panels appeared on skirts and the line between the sexes blurred and overlapped, with similar silhouettes and equestrian influences. (Cross-dressing is a fine old regal tradition. Sometimes it even became necessary when times were hard. As when after the privy purses went and the brocade had to be shared out.)

The test of a true designer: the crisp white shirts. Here small and perfectly formed, with pointed collars and extravagant French cuffs. A recurring safari theme updated the women’s clothes with masculine cut and colours. Eyelets with lacing appeared unexpectedly on the front of a man’s shirt, the side of a woman’s blouse or on its back.
One thing: in the face of all this blue-blooded assurance, what were the Jodhpuri wedding sarees doing? The family silver on a citrus-fruity palette? Oh, retail. Well, caveat emptor: buyers, this means you! Someone, quickly engrave that on the royal crest.

SABYASACHI: FOR THE ALIPORE LITTLE RICH GIRL
What a relief to switch channels: from the National Geographic Tribes of the World programming we’ve been inundated with to one that mined our own tribal vocabulary. That is, the Tantra at the Park tribe, the Loreto House tribe, the Rock Around the Clock tribe, the Tollygunge Club tribe – you get the idea.

Is Sabyasachi the new Sona in Bangla fashion? It was so bracing to watch this young designer take on the saree worn with the kurta-as choli and unusual juxtapositions of bottoms and tops accessorised with beggar bags and floaty tapes and bits. Sabyasachi used antique brocade, floating forms, eclectic fabrics, in colours that should have clashed but didn’t. Bheri, bheri bhine, bhantastic. Bhut, not the bhoots: people were doing them in Mumbai last year. What it is? Kolkata is in a different time jhone?

MONAPALI: MONA DARLING’S PRET A PALI
Dear and lovely Auntyjis,

We love your work, appreciate your commitment to our textile heritage and your sustained research. We’ve seen how stylishly you dress your ladies of Kolkata and elsewhere, and admired how you never sacrificed tradition for trendiness, or compromised your innate refinement.

At LIFW 2002, we were a bit taken aback: tight leather pants and Monapali? Confectionary colours and butterfly shapes? This must be a temporary aberration this pret-a-Pali?

Your earlier influences were there, in the metallic torso-skimming kameezes with sheer Peshawari salwars. Or in the sensitive Shibori tie dye indigo collection. Or again in the kantha embroidery you do so well: this time with metallic thread instead of silk. Such a good way to keep the classic relevant.

The capes were a good beginning too, there’s certainly a potential waiting to emerge there. Amidst all this disco designer deewane nonsense, you are the awaaz of reason. We know you are ek dum busy but please have tea and discussion with Ritu Aunty and so much will become clear.

Love and sandesh,

Ourselves, Kingfisher Fashion Team