India Couture Week 2017: Comfort for Brides, Says Anamika Khanna

Bridal comfort was a big focus in Khanna’s collection ‘Happily Ever After’, unveiled at India Couture Week 2017

Anamika Khanna at the installation show for her collection, Happily Ever After. 

Photo Courtesy: FDCI

Couture is a snooty bird – it doesn’t quite care about comfort. It flutters about, heady with its own magnificence, ready to shrink you under its glamour.

But as rare as it may be, sometimes couture does shed its arrogance, and think of the comfort of the wearer too.

A big focus, incidentally, in Anamika Khanna’s collection ‘Happily Ever After’, unveiled at Day 1 of the India Couture Week 2017, was bridal comfort – as paradoxical as it may be.

“I sometimes feel that the bride must be abusing me. I wanted to stop that”, said Khanna, while speaking of her effort to keep the collection comfortable.

Khanna kept the ornamental veil accompanying her wedding lehengas really light-weight.

(Photo: The Quint)

Why Must the Veil Be Heavy?

Interestingly, Khanna kept the ornamental veil accompanying her wedding lehengas really lightweight.

The veil is not heavy. It again comes down to comfort. And while there may be the old <i>Benarsi dupatta</i>, there are also those with a lot of thread embroidery done on the <i>chunni</i>. For me, I really want to be in this comfort space where my bride is easy and not abusing me.

Anamika Khanna, fashion designer&nbsp;

She’s a Jacket Girl

Anamika Khanna brings versatile jackets to couture (Photo: FDCI)

A great thing about Anamika, besides her signature capes of course, is how she brings jackets to couture. Being a jacket girl myself, I love the idea of not having to forego them while wearing Indian wear. Well, turns out, Khanna too is a fan of jackets.

I am not a gown girl, so I compensate them with jackets. It’s lovely to have jackets in your wardrobe . Dress it up, dress it down, you can do so many things with it.

Anamika Khanna, designer&nbsp;

Different Looks for Different Wedding Functions

The collection ‘Happily Ever After’ is divided into different rituals of the Indian wedding: The ‘Welcome Lunch’ is kept eclectic and the colours are kept pastel, with mostly thread work and different types of zardosi. There is a diaphanous lehenga with thread work that really stands out with due to its intricacy.

Colours for the welcome lunch were kept pastel  (Photo: FDCI)

For the ‘Mehendi’, there are three shapes to choose from. From the traditional lehenga to the sharara, to the draped sari. There’s an array of colours like mustard, purple, coral and red to choose from.

The draped sari, with purple separates.  (Photo: FDCI)

The cocktail section of the collection gives a lovely flapper vibe. “Yes”, admits Khanna. “I feel like a 1920s flapper girl.”

Lots of fringeing work was seen in Khanna’s collection(Photo: FDCI)

While there is a lot of fringing work, there is also interesting experimentation with tassels and beadwork. There is also a lot of black in the collection, which is now an accepted colour in the game of couture.

Black dominated the cocktail section of the collection  (Photo: FDCI)

Ask Khanna about the trends she is betting on, she says, she wants to keep it individualistic. Although she does mention her love for smart separates. Says she, “I don’t want the bride to do a top to toe Anamika Khanna. I want her to do her own thing”.

Perhaps Khanna wants her muses to design their own ‘Happily Ever Afters’.

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