Designers Ration the Dare-Bare Act > Back To Resources Main

NEW DELHI: When designer Rina Dhaka shows her new collection this fashion week, there will be one major change - rationed dare-bare.

This is new for one of India's best and boldest designers who rose to fame not only by designing some of the country's most daring collections but also by wearing those clothes herself.

"When I began I was young and ready to try out so many new things. Also, I did what I pleased and was as bold as could be," Dhaka told IANS after her round of fittings before the annual India Fashion Week begins in Delhi next week.

"But now, one is more cautious and so are the models. We have burnt our fingers."

The statement is particularly loaded because last year the fashion week in Mumbai was particularly noted for its raunchy antics on the ramp - with women models licking each other's tongues on the runway.

So this year, it won't be flesh at Dhaka's. "We are doing thongs but with the essentials covered. Definitely."

One of India's most effusive and elegant designers, her new collection is inspired by 1930s English paintings.

"The colours are taken straight out of those charming paintings, so they have that sense of distant, ephemeral and yet ever-lasting hue," said Dhaka, a splendidly fit young mother.

One of the top three Indian designers, Dhaka makes Western clothes with a dab of ethinicity and lots of spunk and chutzpah.

She grows abstract as she talks about her new collection to be displayed at the I F W that begins next week.

"There are some lightly embellished overcoats, lots of flimsy pieces for innerwear and holiday wear - and when I say flimsy, they are really very flimsy," said Dhaka.

Her colour palate, she said, was a strong ivory with specs of sand and hints of metal and very dull, grounded hues of earth and sand.

"It's a very grounded fantasy, the mood is sombre, the feel is delicate and very stark," said Dhaka. "Surreal and yet rooted."

The designer, a success at London superstore Selfridges, said she was looking strongly at the home market, which is often neglected in the hype to garner foreign buyers.

"You know, at the end of the day, they (the foreign buyers) buy very little. The strongest market is the home market," explained Dhaka. "But with all the media hype and attention towards the foreign buyers, the focus gets diluted a bit.