Paris Amour by Archana Kochhar: Lakme Fashion Week S/R 2014

Archana Kochhar’s “Paris Amour” collection at Lakmé Fashion Week Summer/Resort 2014 had all the iconic French touches.

From the Pop Art Paris map, to the Eiffel Tower and spring blossoms, the images were turned into digital prints and combined with monochromatic black stripes and checks. Giving resort wear an Indo-western twist, there was a line of short umbrella skirts; crisp shirts, kaftans, sexy slit gowns, draped dhoti saris, peplum chemise, lehengas and suspender skirts.

Colours created a riot on the stage with lime green, yellow, red, purple, teal as well as green interspersed with black and white. 3D flowers were the focal point of the garments and sparkled with Swarovski dust.

Playing with the stripes in horizontal and vertical forms, Archana had some interesting entries like small gilets over white shirts worn with short frothy skirts. Kaftans moved from mini to maxi and pre-stitched saris which followed the black and white theme with red floral prints were worn over checked/striped tights and jersey cholis. An eye- catcher was the boldly striped top with a matching maxi skirt. Striped kurtas peeped out from under black net covers and a black/white/red chiffon coat looked dramatic with a kurta.

Men’s wear worked well in black/white with ombré effects for kurtas, horizontal striped bundgalas, bundi with an Eiffel tower print, or asymmetric closures.