Phygital Fashion Week 2021: How a virtual fashion week fell short

Couture bridal showcase by Manish Malhotra

That moment when Manish Malhotra picked up the sweeping one-shouldered sparkly sequin cape attached to a bodice worn by actor Kiara Advani, and gently flung its corners around his shoulder as they walked the makeshift ramp with Kartik Aryan, unwittingly delivered a metaphor for fashion itself; picking up the pieces of our post-vaccine selves.

"It's a reality [the pandemic] that exists, but it's not wrong to dream. I am a dream-maker; my shows celebrate crafts, culture, and are always about looking forward," informs the designer before his primetime IRL show, held as part of the ‘phygital' season of Lakmé Fashion Week (LFW) organised jointly by Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI) and Rise Worldwide.

Last year, we took notes while watching diaphanous slip dresses and spiffed-up drapes whoosh past our laptop screen during the fully digital fashion week. Last week (March 16-March 21), the new season unfolded in a combination of physical and digital rollouts showcasing collections by thirty-plus designers, including Anamika Khanna, Ritu Kumar, Shantanu & Nikhil, Suneet Varma, Masaba Gupta, Huemn, Payal Pratap, Payal Singhal Bodice by Ruchika Sachdeva, Gauri & Nainika and Bloni by
Akshat Bansal.

Couture bridal showcase by Manish Malhotra, who walks with actors Kiara Advani and Kartik Aryan

"We have got to start somewhere," reasons Singhal apropos her decision to do a live, in-person show to launch an Indian athleisure line called Kismet featuring mask-less models to a socially distanced audience seated in their respective cars. "There are some who are in it [industry] for the eyeballs and entertainment, but we forget that fashion week is above all, a trade show. It means [bringing in] new business for us that will support our staff of 150," she tells mid-day in a chat preceding her show.

Does fashion still matter? Depending on who is asking: fashion is vain, highbrow, obtuse, political, girly, anti-feminist, and basically a frivolous cultural kink barely worth the fingering. And yet, the frivolous #RippedJeans seriously trends on social media, with torrid tweets posted by all the aforesaid women collectively hitting back at a "sexist" remark by the Uttarakhand CM.

Well, almost all. And yet, the frivolous industry - as part of the textiles and apparel sector - is our country's largest employer after agriculture. Despite a 27 per cent drop in size in 2020, the Indian apparel market is expected to touch R5,781 billion by 2024, according to a report by Boston Consulting Group. "On one level, the industry provides jobs but it is also the most culturally potent force that drives social changes," says Pranav Misra, co-founder and designer at Huemn.

It's been exactly a year since the framework in which the fashion system - with all its exclusivity and whimsy - operated, fell like dominoes. While the jury is still deliberating on whether fashion weeks are now pointless, this FDCI x LFW season could be interpreted as a defiant shout to: the show must go on. "Fashion weeks remain relevant; it is the largest lifestyle property in terms of the quantum of business or investments and sponsorships. The pandemic [however] has made certain aspects of the event redundant. Going forward, what will matter is how we do it," Jaspreet Chandok, head of lifestyle business at Rise Worldwide, had told mid-day during an interview on March 1.

And what about the customer? The folks who wear the clothes and give fashion its superpower. Are they still interested in "trends"? That whole machinery muddled down into slots of capitalism and influencer cult seems a little glib and morally incorrect right now. We would rather rush to get the vaccine and rebuild our mental and social lives than fortify our wardrobes.

With the fashion's rhythm of certainty and surprise having been broken, isn't it a glorious time to pivot on a show of the personal, on feelings, values and mindful consumerism, to reset rules and take a moment to extend that magic of storytelling. Everyone has a story; telling them helps make fashion matter, without the circus.
But instead of imagining a new way of life; not a new normal but a new ethos; most shows (with few exceptions) this season were moving look-books staged to replicate the ghosts of ex-fashion weeks past.

Long hemlines for tight purse strings

Bodice by Ruchika Sachdeva

Fashion is a social mirror, and thank God for designers who received that memo. Whenever the economy is troubled, hemlines get longer, as if long lengths go well with being in the doldrums! Below the knee, midcalf, hovering around the ankles - all of these felt relevant at the Bodice show as a way of expressing a sense of agency. The brand's designer, Ruchika Sachdeva's study of optical pleating was, as always, ingenious and intelligent.

Payal Pratap

While most designers desperately chased a return to crowds and chaos, Payal Pratap found limitless freedom in confinement. Using florals for spring is certainly not groundbreaking. Floral patterns against a dark background, however, is a mood. Or, as Pratap notes in a social media post: "Celebrating the good in us". Out came the long skirts and dresses with longer jackets, their shape and silhouette tailored to follow the body contours rather than the other way around.

Keeping it personal

The P.E.L.L.A fashion film, Hive, was shot on Tonglu Peak at Singalila National Park, Darjeeling

The best virtual shows at this fashion week were those that didn't pretend to be fashion shows. Anamika Khanna is one instance, and P.E.L.L.A by Priyanka Ella Lorena Lama is another. Their respective films were a celebration of the melancholia surrounding impermanence, but also argued that the certainty of decay can inspire creativity.

Industry veteran, Khanna, played with the idea of transience, that situation between the weird and wonderful - an emotion that's more than palpable right now. There were pointed ankle boots. Also skirts: from dhoti drapes hemmed in flat metallic embroidery to a armour-inspired version in scallop beads. Tailored coats in antique textiles accentuated with fringe threadwork details; and a bomber jacket-meets-shrug pair sparked memories of intricate Kutchi handwork. Balancing good taste with a desirable effect, Khanna gave us something to cheer about.

Timeless the World by Anamika Khanna

"[My] collection takes inspiration from time, the understanding of life in slow motion… an end of something and the beginning of anything," narrates the designer to introduce Hive, her collection. The five-minute film by P.E.L.L.A worked on several levels at once. While romancing a humanistic quality, it pointedly communicated the label's approach to slow fashion that cuts waste and lasts longer. The billowing, somewhat unhinged shapes built from homegrown fabrics spilled across genders and sizes, and were anything but too loose or too contrived. Effectively delivering a metaphor for thoughtful, well-made garments that are no longer up for negotiation.

Masaba Gupta

Two words: elastic stretch. One buzzword: athleisure (made-up of terms that fit somewhere between athletic or leisure pursuits). While you're at it, add a fanny pack to the cart.

If the video starring Deepika Padukone's hip hopping in a Masaba Gupta "trackee" and bucket hat was a teaser, the full picture unfolded at the designer's show. Gupta dressed her men and women in a range of knotted crop tops, cape blouses, dresses, and duets of saree-blouses and track pants-hooded jumpers drizzled over in a combination of signature prints; the holy cow, lipstick bullets, palm, toffee wrappers, etc. Impressive in the comfort concept (as was the notably diverse choice of models), albeit post review, it felt more like a compilation of old hits rehashed from familiar styles and trimmings without really evolving.

Huemn by Pranav Misra and Shyma Shetty

Payal Singhal put an Indian stamp on her street-meets-sportswear collection that appeared to strategically focus on styles that were younger and not overly complicated or pretentious. Made from fabrics recycled from PET bottles, courtesy R-Elan, the styles included, dhoti-sarees, kurta-jogger sets and ribbed crop top-jogger sarees finished in a twist of thread and wool embroidery and the label's characteristic tassel and pom-pom details.

"Except maybe for running a marathon, you can do just about anything in our sports saree," Singhal says. Noted.

Kismet by Payal Singhal

An oversized sweatshirt is the new tailored blouse, really. "While we have been doing outerwear for a while and it comes naturally to us as a brand philosophy, the WFH and stepping out remotely has pushed our narrative of cool and responsible clothing," says Pranav Misra of Huemn. The brand's small collection of oversized sportswear was crafted in homegrown cotton and silk with couture-level 3D embroidery, embossing that had a cool looseness and coarseness to it.