Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week | Spring Summer 2014

There was good reason why veteran designer looked emotional when young duo Ankur and Priyanka Modi (behind the label AM:PM) took their bow after showing their Spring/ Summer 2014 collection on Thursday at the ongoing Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week (WIFW).

The two may be family for the senior Modi (son and daughter-in-law) but that's probably not the only reason behind her warm applause. Tribus, AM:PM's collection which used isolated tribal motifs in innovative and fun-inspiring versions on their garments added weight to a point begun to be made strongly by younger Indian designers: an unflinching loyalty to personal signature, reverence for the dressing needs and fabrics of this country, yet a non-fussy global wearability.

They are the reason why the global fashion market should relook at India as a boutique of inspiring clothing as well as some serious fashion. That too, without the dominance of familiar bling and dense embroidery. In fact, many collections suggest embracing a sporty approach, both literally (with sporty shoes, accessories and printed or digitalized technique separates) and figuratively. Even three years back, it would have been difficult to predict this turnaround that Indian fashion would retain the unique stamp of India without salma-sitaras.

In this heap designer duo Pankaj and Nidhi and Rahul Mishra -both, incidentally, winners of the International Woolmark Prize (the former in 2012 and Mishra this year)-stand out.

Mishra, who has been pushing his argument of showing the country's diversities through his many collections over the last six years since he's been around, is fast learning to soften his emphatic war cry about handlooms without losing the point. He makes clothes that pay obeisance to polarities: the Kerala sari (South) and the Banarasi brocade (North) used in the same garment for instance. This once, he put out the East and the West of India in his work. His Spring Summer 2014 collection KISS-Keep it Simple and Sport (sic), showed a thought through use of West Bengal jamdanis and imaginatively worked kutchi bandhinis. Especially the latter: the bandhini was not only fine in technique but the fresh new silhouettes gave it a quiet glamour. The kind of glamour confident celebrities like Halle Berry or Kangna Ranaut could adopt and turn it into a stunning look.

Pankaj and Nidhi on the other hand, are fast catching up to become front runners as the younger leaders of the pack in technique and surface embellishments. While their collection was called the Grammar of Ornament, it did not have even one drop of bling or shine. It shone through because of the use of three-dimensional applique techniques to create effects of sculpture in marble, fresco-like silk embroideries and mosaic work achieved by hand-cut fabric biscuits. This was true luxury inside pret.

Not just that but the silhouettes created by the designers listed above are wearable and saleable anywhere in the world. Sporty jackets, shorts, jumpsuits, short and long dresses, cocktail pieces, palazzos, long and soft handloom coats, transparent pants, buzzy blouses, crop tops...

To create spectacles on the ramp, these designers need to push their game to another level. While talent in mounting a show is beginning to show, yet the gush of curiosity and excitement one feels while watching an extraordinary fashion show is still missing. Styling is still not striking. Amit Agarwal's clothes (and stunning, experimental footwear), expectedly told a powerful story of change and AM:PM's Tribus stood for sophisticated wearability but collectively, this bunch has to push the bar it has raised for itself. By giving the boot to bling, they have covered huge ground and challenged the bigwigs of this industry in benign but effective new ways.

Now to work towards the making of their brands, they need to take a leaf (and not the whole tree) from the multi-facetted fashion sensibilities of seniors like Manish Arora, , Tarun Tahiliani, Sabyasachi or Anamika Khanna among others. They don't just rely on making India-inspired garments but know how to create magic out of fashion.