Mixed Bag

6 hot, sizzling, never before twists to your regular festival looks

Year after year festivals give us that much needed excuse to deck up and dazzle, a time when we do not mind swapping the comfort of our no fuss jean and tee look for the sheer opulence of nine yard kancheevarams and flowing tissue ghagras. With experimentation being the key word in the world of fashion today it would be a crime to not infuse a little bit of fun and glam into our regular festival looks while not taking away from the self possessed elegance of these classic styles. So, go ahead have fun playing stylist this Diwali

• Think backless cholis and noodle strap blouses are too tame? Structured and bold shoulders are so Fall 2009. Try a blouse with shoulder pads with your sari for the perfect exaggerated shoulder look.

• Swap your dupatta for a fitted shrug (the shorter the better) and your traditional salwar kameez /churidhar gets an instant lift. Opt for a sequined shrug if the rest of your outfit could use a little bling. Printed shrugs work best if your outfit is heavily embellished.

• Team an embellished anarkali kurta with transparent black stockings for an evening out and watch heads turn.

• Colour co ordinate a long flowing ghaghra with a simple slim fit white shirt worn with an intricately detailed spaghetti over for interesting effect

• A voluminous patiala pant works better with a fitted tee than the regular kurti. Add a corsage or a printed scarf for quirky edge if the tee is plain.

• A quilted jacket worn with churi pants in a basic hue is a safe bet if you love androgynous styles

What's in a nail?

Think pink nails are passé and kohl tips, done to death? How does a Da Vinci miniature on your talons sound for a change?

No longer is painting your nails about matching the colour of the lacquer to your outfit. Right now, it’s all about wearing your attitude. From mismatching your toes to your fingers to getting yin yangs and cross bones on your tips, nail trends are more personalized and quirky than ever before. Wanna look ‘with it’ but not game for something as permanent as a tattoo or radical as an eyebrow piercing? Nail art is an easy and fun alternative to exude cool.
According to Rachel, Stylesmith, “With regards to the city I think nail art is still more of a once in a while indulgence”. “We normally offer it as a part of our bridal packages and women sometimes want their nails done according to what they are going to wear for a special occasion like a wedding or a festival”, she says. Contrary to popular belief, it’s not just the college goers and teenagers who are all for fun nails. “It’s more about anyone who is young at heart”, she laughingly adds. And how quirky are design preferences we enquire? "Well, I have had a college goer get an Om, a cross and a crescent moon done on three of her fingers”, she says. Easwari, the manicurist at Salon Nayana, believes that pink is easily the most favoured colour when it comes to nail art. “Most people seem to prefer floral designs in pink and white and white swarovski stones are a hot with brides, she observes.

Gender issue

From spa treatments to manicures, beauty treatments are no longer the preserve of the fairer sex, so, we wonder aloud if the metrosexual male has also taken to nail art and Farida.M, Operations Director, Bounce Style lounge clarifies,” The basic idea of nail art is to prettifying one’s nails. So, it’s more of women belonging to a more matured age group who go in for the service.”

Nail TLC
Like any other cosmetic service the longetivity of nail services also depends on after care and maintenance.

• Reapply a clear top coat every two or three days to protect your art and to keep your nails looking shiny, and apply cuticle oil daily.
• Treat your nails with care—wear gloves while doing household chores
• Exercise caution while opening soda cans, container lids etc. The excessive pressure can damage your nails.


DIY

• Want an intricate design but don’t want to pay a pro? Buy stickers or preprinted artificial nails.
• Add swarovski stones to to the edge of your French manicure. White flowers on any color is a classic look too.
• Flowers and letters work best for beginners. Build up gradually to complex designs.
• Use tweezers or a special applicator to dip small nail jewels or stickers into nail gel or nail glue.



Try these

Nail graffiti
Lace patterns (created with gels and airbrush paint)
Domino dots
Nail glitter
Piercings (preferably on ring finger or little finger)


Services:

Stylesmith: nail art services are priced at Rs 300 upwards, nail piercings at Rs 200 and nail extensions at Rs 2500++.
Salon Nayana: nail art services are priced at Rs 200 upwards and nail extensions at Rs 2000++.Details: 28343064
Bounce Style Lounge: nail art services are priced at Rs 700 upwards and nail extensions at Rs 1800++.
Details: 28330508

The Royal Superstar

Browsing through magazines while waiting in the study of a very popular image consultant and page 3 socialite, I chanced upon a feature in ‘The Economist’ mourning the loss of the iconic Maharani Gayatri Devi, who was once listed by Vogue UK as one of the world’s ten most beautiful women. While her innate sense of style has never failed to captivate me, belonging to an era that iconises Angelina Jolie and Aishwarya Rai, I have always regarded her more as a symbol of quaint charm than as a present day muse. But a certain paragraph in the article on how the princess poured expensive French perfume into the sewer of her prison cell and on further research reading anecdotes of how she used to listen to the BBC on a smuggled radio, and play badminton with prostitutes and pickpockets during her 156 day imprisonment in Tihar jail completely altered my fallacy and had me thinking, ‘here’s a woman who can put just about any modern day cosmo girl to shame with her attitude, spirit and spunk’.
I have always believed that personal style is never about what brands you wear or what jewellery you flaunt, but instead an extension of your inner persona to everything from the clothes you wear to the way you live. And in that sense this woman is indeed one of the most stylish women the world has ever seen. Not just because she chose to drape herself in five yards of airy chiffon at a time when women of regal bearing normally dressed in heavy silk brocade or fine muslin embroidered in gold thread or even because she favoured Baroda pearls over ostentatious jewellery, but simply because her sense of style extended well beyond what she wore into every aspect of her being. She might have learnt from her grandmother that emeralds looked better with pink saris rather than green, observed from her mother not to wear diamond-drop earrings at cocktail parties, but when you read how she left Asia’s largest prison and easily one of it’s worst wafting with intoxicating vapours of French perfume, you know that her sense of style and air of regality is way beyond something that can be cultivated. Never again will yards of chiffon and strings of pearl appear as enthralling

Mad Monochrome

Simple and classic, this winning colour scheme never fails to gain attention when done well. Make the most of this timeless trend as it reinvents itself with sequins, stripes and rollicking retro accents.

You hardly require a stylist to put together a black and white look, but with designers presently reworking the yin and yang with everything from animal prints to mondrian style colour blocking, the possibilities of having a little fun with your clothes, while still limiting yourself to austere neutrals, are more. The uninitiated can experiment with little black dresses and white clutches or pumps but,nothing less than an indulgence in exotic graphic prints in contrasts of paper white and dense black is recommended for the pros. Thoughtfully invest in a few wardrobe inclusions and they will last long after your prismatic ensembles have faded into last season’s oblivion.

Mono mania
As referred to in high fashion circles as ‘mad monochrome’, suggesting something more daring than just a white shirt and black trousers, black and white currently is bold and over the top. So, abandon the usual pin stripes and checks for an outrageous tribal print or degrade and go ahead and break a few rules:
• Team stripes with prints, but make sure the stripes are thin and the prints small.
• If you’re experimenting a retro look, opt for oversized polka dots. Small dots will date you.
• Leave the ‘black dress pant- white button down shirt’ style to waitresses. Try white cigarette pants with a ruffled black top for a formal do.
• Make the best of both worlds. Introduce a burst of colour to your outfit in grey scale, in the form of a scarf or a string of beads
• Black tights work for just about any figure, while white tights are best left to little girls
• Black shoes are done to death, but a black shoe with white detail can pull just about any outfit together
• White shoes work perfectly well with white bottoms

Style file
Monochrome works as the perfect foil if you’re shy of bright neon hues. The stark contrast and bipolarity of the combination create drama and the simple elegance of the palette makes it easy to dress it up or dress it down.
To dress up: wear large graphic prints teamed with pale silver accessories
To dress down: wear a black and white checked shirt with a slim fit jean

Optical illusion
• The rules of black being slimming and white adding width still apply, so use black to slim a thick waist and white to broaden narrow shoulders
• When in doubt wear black, when fatigued wear black and white. Black creates the illusion of a lightened complexion, while white instantly revives tired skin.
• White attracts attention while black camouflages. Combine white and black fabric in an ensemble in such a way that white highlights your best features and black camouflages flaws.

We better catch up...

Know what? We are not the fairer sex anymore. A conclusion I have reached after being in the middle of blazers and slim ties all week along while walking in and out of places like gabbana.life and Raymond. Would you believe me if I told you that I actually found a place in Chennai that customizes cufflinks?
Gone are the days when men just matched their socks to their ties, today I have a male friend who bribes me with mms to ensure I pick up his monthly copy of GQ every time I head to Landmark to grab a copy of Vogue. Of course metro sexuality has been around for quite a while now, at least since Karan Johar had SRK sporting pink and still looking just as male and ummm sexy. But I was really taken aback when sometime recently I was working on a story on sunscreens and a friend pitched in with a whole lot of interesting info on sunscreens formulated specially for men. Practical stuff that you can never read up on the web. And today if I occasionally venture to wear sunscreen on my face (something I would never have done before coz a tan is easier to handle any day than an unsightly breakout) it’s thanks to his advice of diluting one drop of sunscreen with water. Take notes women!
I love the fact that fashion is no more the monopoly of either of the sexes and infact is getting more and more androgynous by the day. Boyfriend tees work great for fat days and knowing all the effort that you put into that smoky eyed look won’t be met with a ‘why you looking like a raccoon response’, is great consolation. But then the feeling of superiority that used to ebb inside every time a male friend asks for style advice, I guess that’s something we now have to forfeit.

For the uninitiated, hers where to head
For the best blazers/ jackets/ dinner suits: gabbana.life, Khader Nawaz Khan Road. Details: 43084380
For tailor made tuxedos: Studio Bassam, Khader Nawaz Khan Road.
For the best clubwear: ZOD has an amazing collection at Lifestyle. Details: 28477788
For the best formal wear: Raymond, Mount Road.
For the quirkiest accessories: Rock, Greams Road. Details: 65287533
For the most interesting shoes: Dollars & Pounds. Details: 43514080
For stoles and scarves: Fashion folks, Adyar. Details: 244697886 or Casablanca, Nungambakkam. Details: 42141497

Good beginnings

There are two reasons why I finally got myself to sit down today, scratch my brains a little and make my very first post, a) Having just turned 23, I simply had to cross out a few more things from my list of 25 things to do before I turn 25. Time is running out you know and starting a blog definitely seemed more accomplishable as opposed to going bungee jumping or owning my own apartment b) The city is soon to host its very first fashion week and I just had to word my opinion on how this could mean so much to a destination that has always been sneered at as ‘not so fashion forward’. The good news came to me first when I was making small talk with a popular party columnist at a luncheon and then the link on facebook that promised 7 days of high fashion and the coming together of 30 designers apart from a whole lot of opportunities for budding designers, stylists and models, had me scoring the web for more info. Apparently there is not too much information available on what to expect of the event yet, except for the fact that a whole lot of people are just as excited as me and believe that this is indeed a premonition of good things to come. Shifting focus to the bigger picture, all of a sudden India seems to be global fashion’s latest muse. It wasn’t too long ago that Kenzo launched the fragrance Amour Indian Holi inspired by the Indian festival or Lancome gave us a make up collection inspired by the colours of Indian earth, but with Dior’s introduction of Escale a Pondicherry (fragrance inspired by the quaint town), we can easily claim that international designers’ current intoxication with anything Indian is no fleeting attraction and holds all possibility of turning into a full fledged fanatism. But then that’s a whole different story and you will have to wait till my next post to hear more on the topic. With styling a portfolio and a menswear shoot to look forward to during the next week, here’s hoping there will be lots more to write about when am back.