Vineet Bahl presents his caravan collection

Designer Vineet Bahl’s presented his autumn-winter collection ‘caravan’ inspired by his travel around the world on Day One of the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week. His couture was an interesting amalgamation of different cultures of the world. Aditi Caroli reports.

Designer Vineet Bahl’s presented his autumn-winter collection ‘caravan’ inspired by his travel around the world on Day One of the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week. His couture was an interesting amalgamation of different cultures of the world.

Crocheted lace, check print, kantha print and neon detailing were the high-points of his designing. Use of Sardinian and Afghastani embroidery was quite striking. Tunics, dresses, a-line skirts and wide leg pants in black, white, blue, green, red, brown, yellow formed the collection.

Crocheted lace, check print, kantha print and neon detailing were the high-points of his designing (HT Photo: Zhazo Miachieo)

Designer on his collection: “We have used raw silk, brocade and georgette. The collection was called caravan. The whole idea was inspired from travels around the world. So taking little inspirations from the countries which I have visited like Romani or Afghanistan, I combined it together and made it into something that works. So there are lots of colours, lots of patterns. Silhouettes are very free flowing.”

Vineet incorporated different kinds of techniques. “There was also Sardinian embroidery from Sardinia which is close to Italy. There were motifs on the dresses, Afghani embroidery. A lot of prints that you saw were Afghani prints. The whole idea was to combine and juxtapose one culture with another, using Indian traditional techniques like zardozi to make something very different, rich and wearable.”

Short dresses and skirts were a prominent part of his couture. “For Indian winters, if you are wearing right type of leggings, you can get away with a short skirt. It looks cute, especially with boots. Boots and tights with short skirts or mini dresses are very in. You can complement it with a jacket too,” he said.

All the models wore a black top with white polka-dots and black leggings. “I used black as a canvas. All the models wore black t-shirt underneath and black tights. That’s what works for winter, a colour juxtaposed with black,” the designer pointed out.

Finally a good show was a relief for the audience. Earlier shows on Day One by Shantanu-Nikhil and Preeti Chandra were not so great.