Payal Pratap invoked the spirit of Virginia Woolf as reading becomes a relaxing pursuit and replaces the need for “clutching” on to glitter as books are now the essential accessories
By Asmita Aggarwal
What makes the world go round when you are confined to your surroundings? Music, art, meditation and looking for apps to maintain equanimity, maybe that’s why the fashion world has brought forward all these “tools of survival” to the forefront in their film presentations at the FDCI X LFW showcasing. On one hand, younger labels used rap to send across the message of sustainability, Payal Pratap is going back to her childhood when books, a middle-class pursuit made you see the world through the vivid eyes of the author.
Was she trying to invoke the spirit of Virginia Woolf remembering her epic “A room of one’s own” with her line “View With a Room” as reading has proved to be one of the most therapeutic ways of living in troubled times? Maybe that’s why Pratap began her FDCI x LFW showcase with an open book! Also a metaphor of how our lives have become thanks to social media.
An art gallery followed with a flower remembering sweet old, simpler times when lovers would meet with an exchange of blossoms represented with jackets overflowing with a melange of clashing prints in earthy browns. As pixelated flowers took over check coats, she made a play for silent spring, the real frolic was in the shoes which were enlivened with delicate yet vibrant thread work florals. Traditional menswear fabrics were engineered to offer women functional coats as cobalt blues and deep plums with tie up details as well as finer nuances of smocking added a third dimension.
Wrap dresses and asymmetry are Payal forte, what made an impact were books replacing glittering clutches as the new accessories with the world realising that words are all that remain to soothe frayed nerves.
On another note, what is ageless, sports a salt and pepper beard and is as agile as a gazelle? Well, remember Milind Soman? The man with the delicious abs and graceful gait who was the 90s poster boy for all design houses! So when he makes a fervent call to stop exploitation of animals, in association with PETA, and how all inhabitants of this planet must be respected, we have no choice but to listen!
