Varun Bahl, Karan Johar’s (design) partner-in-crime collaborated with Grey Goose to showcase a one-off collection at “IIFA Rocks” in Singapore on the 8th of June. The collection was “inspired by 4 cocktails crafted after four exotic locations of the world” and, apparently, takes you “through a journey from sophisticated Paris to edgy Tokyo, from there to playful Spain and finally to disco Bombay”. Intrigued? How about I throw in Vivek Oberoi and Nargis Fakhri into the mix? Come, come, let’s check it out!
How do I like the collection? Afraid not at all. Varun, talented a designer he may be, just seems all over the place with this collection. There’s excessive draping, excessive fabric, needless ruffling, unflattering silhouettes, when exercising some restraint would’ve yielded so much the punchier results. Take for instance the first six looks of the show which are supposed to be reflective of the “sophisticated Paris”. Parisienne women and clean, uncomplicated silhouette are synonymous but here you see fabrics sticking out, everywhere. There’s nothing sophisticated about those pieces and dare I say it, the fabrics look cheap.
It’s the same story again with the Tokyo-inspired pieces. Japanese women are famed for taking layering, volumes and colours to crazy levels. You’d be hard-pressed to find women in the streets of Tokyo dress in flowing pieces like these, that too in as soothing a hue as lavender. So, were these pieces edgy? Err, in a loose sense of the word.
Then it is playful Spain we’re headed to. Okay, I’ll give him one thing and that is he got the colour right with this sequence of looks. But I wish he injected another colour or two to break down the monotony of tangerine. He is perfectly within his right to call on ruffles to riff on Spain, and again I wish he was more judicious; these pieces would’ve stood out so much more then.
But it’s with the pieces on Bombay that I’ve the most gripe with. Seriously, you had to pick a colour as insipid as beige for somewhere as vibrant as aamchi Mumbai? These just look tacky.
I tried to like the dress Nargis wore but there’s just so much going on that you don’t know where to focus on… the shimmering fabric… the sculpted shoulder details… the peplum effect… the embellishments on the layered tulle skirt… TELL ME!!
Vivek Oberoi was the solo male strutting down the runway for Varun Bahl, in a black bandhgala suit. I’m distracted by the puddling of Vivek’s trousers to look anywhere else. Couldn’t Varun have taken up the trouser hem before sending his showstopper down the ramp? That. Is. Elementary.
That was my two cents worth on this collection. But if you still liked them and fancy some for yourself, you can get them at Varun Bahl’s stores in Kala Ghoda, Mumbai and DLF Emporio, Delhi.