October 8, 2015 Asmita Aggarwal

Out-of-the (beat) box

Sanjay Garg’s Raw Mango keeps the mood upbeat as his mushroo and mogra remind you of quintessential India and leaves you longing for more!

By Asmita Aggarwal

Peacocks in zari on chunnis draped as shawls, the non-constricting structure of the phiran used as an inspiration and the riveting smell of mogras which remind Sanjay Garg (Raw Mango), where he lives (Chhatterpur), gave the opening show at the AIFW SS 16 a humbling touch where ‘Made in India’ was celebrated in a world that is drenched in neoprene, crepe and sequins.

It was an effort to declare, ‘be Indian, be proud’.  With the cerebral Konkona Sen Sharma, Deepti Naval, Soha Ali Khan gracing the front row, Garg made sure that his Beneras woven mushroo with a softer drapier feel remained in the spotlight. But what was hard to miss were the hanging flowers used to create a ceiling at the NSIC Grounds hall, which when you looked up, seemed like a constellation of sparkling stars in myriad hues, serving as a perfect leitmotif.

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The delicate bootis on roomy tunics on a restrained gold background, or quilted ones with a floral splendour used as lining, in an array of hues ranging from pleasing purples to vivacious reds, emerald greens and rani pinks made a perfect accompaniment to the cropped cigarette pants, falling short just a teeny-weeny bit above the ankle. “I have given women three separates; the chunni you can drape anyway, the pant and the tunic which you can mix and match with other stuff in your wardrobe. The idea was to keep it fuss-free yet ingenious,” says Garg.

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The subtle hints of zari, the hand-made flowers delicately floating on his sheer chunnis and his monochromatic saris worn with jackets and fishtail braids made a quiet entry on the first day of the five-day extravaganza. “I wanted the music to have no barriers so we got D Club to do a live performance based on beats. It is music which belongs to everyone, it comes with no political baggage,” he adds. Mushroo, his choice of fabric, woven in cotton to give it that lightness, reflects his thought process which has been constructed into structure-less clothing, where nothing was curvaceous or tapered, using the simple Asian garment to make a point that neither ‘dabka nor zardosi will help you’, unless there is an ideology to back it.

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“The entire line was crafted in Varanasi, we got the yarn, looms started and it is not a fad that I am catering too, rather, it is an unpretentious attempt to celebrate what is intrinsically ours minus the inhibitions,” he concludes.

 

Click here to read reviews from Day 1 at #AIFWSS16 on the Amazon.in Blog

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