Lakme Fashion Week 2014: Au naturel, all the way

12 pm > Mrinalini Chandra, Lalit Sengar, [Ka][Sha] & N&S Gaia

The Indian Textile Day is always something we look forward to. It started with accessory designer Mrinalini Chandra. She played around with tiny chairs as her main muse that were used in all sorts of jewelled pieces ranging from hair accessories, statement neckpieces and even kaleerein, which is worn by brides on their bangles. We loved the kooky bride.

Mrinalini Chandra's jewellery line was inspired by chairs

Next in line was [Ka][Sha] by Karishma Shahani who played around with her usual mix of naturally dyed textiles patched together to create boho silhouettes with floral embroideries and ajrakh prints adding some amount
of detailing.

Sidharth Sinha's collection featured the textiles of Meghalaya. Pics/Satyajit Desai

Lalit Sengar wowed us with his deconstructed jackets for men that had floral prints on the inside, and were paired with beautiful dhoti pants paired with jackets. Actor Purab Kohli did justice to the dhoti pants and floral jacket by carrying it off in style. Finally, N&S Gaia did an ode to the Dakmanda, a style of hand-plucked embroidery from Meghalaya. The pleated dresses that looked regal and crisp made from hand-woven cotton blends were our favourites; Sidharth Sinha's label deserves a mention for a few of his well-structured silhouettes.

From Benaras, with love

9.30 pm > Anita Dongre
Anita Dongre who also mentored the Gen Next designers this season, posed backstage exclusively for mid-day, moments before her show last night.

The show was an ode to the Benarasi weave. Letting us in about her collection, she said, "The collection is a pret version and a summer interpretation of the Benarasi weave. Benarasi always uses zari, and you can't really wear it for summer. We have tweaked the fabric and created a weave without the zari so anyone in the world can wear these clothes for summer and the silhouettes are very modern too."

Power to the Paithani

1:30 pm > Pratima Pandey & Swapnil Shinde
The fact that he was going to work on a weave from Maharashtra - the Paithani - had several Indian textile fans excited (Rashmi Thackeray, Uddhav Thackeray's wife was in attendance too). What interpreted on stage did get our vote. The collection started with dresses in typical Paithani colours such as oranges and pinks and gradually progressed to blacks and gold. We loved the bubble shorts (left, in pic) made from the weave and also the border of the saree used as panels for a dress. Shinde used the parrot motif of the Paithani in print for voluminous gowns.

Pratima Pandey's show was subtler, with layered kurtas worn over flow-ey skirts and pajamas. Pandey made use of the diaphanous nature of the Chanderi silk for layering with floral prints worn underneath such that it shows from outside. Delicate floral embroidery in white and colourful threads made for some detailing over the outfits.

The Indian textile tango

3.30 pm > Gaurang Shah, Purvi Doshi & Shruti Sancheti
Gaurang Shah has always done wonders with Indian fabrics with his exquisite lehenga designs created using khadi. This collection, Chandbali, was equally good. Shah worked with khadi, organza and odhanis focussing on traditional, antique woven patterns that covered the heads of the models.

Inspired by nature and all things natural, Purvi Doshi's collection was created from the humble cotton fabric

He also used zardozi embroidery that used motifs such as cows, and the star and moon motif, which stood out beautifully on rich colours such as greens, oranges and pinks as well.

In Shruti Sancheti's line, blossoms appeared artistically not only through fabrics but as accessories too

Next up, Purvi Doshi had models dancing down the ramp in dresses with floral embroidery taking centre stage; this was déjà vu of her collection (Sanrakshan) shown in summer last year.

Gaurang's collection celebrated khadi

The colour palette differed though. Shruti Sancheti too let flowers take over in breezy flared pants, kurtas and achkan-style dresses. We loved the lattice floral shrug worn by a model, and the sarees that were extremely feminine.

A salute to swadeshi

7.30 pm > Krishna Mehta

Fashion designer Krishna Mehta created a line using Maheshwari silks and cotton in association with Ministry of Textiles, India. What we liked the most was the sheer jacket for men worn over printed shirt. Still need more reasons to go swadeshi?

Out of the box?

Quirk seems to have taken centre stage at the Eleven Eleven show. Drama apart, we weren't able to get the drift of the collection.

Look who's back!

Actress Sushmita Sen exuded loads of oomph as she walked the ramp for designer Kresha Bajaj and showed the world she still has all that one needs to be a super model. Pic/Dhara Vora