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METROSCAPE
Fashion Reeway
Making sense of the latest in style ...
# Deconstruction is Ritu Beri's new couture mantra
for her Bohemian line currently heading for Paris. The bell bottoms have
flares that could embarrass a ghaghra; red sailor caps mismatch with peach
jacket-jean combos and the bold lingerie with a pink sheer gown can only
find takers among the very bold. The preview at Delhi's Hyatt Regency
had more aesthetic aberrations but, hang on, this is all in the name of
style.
 #
Designer Rohit Bal, 39, and Kingfisher have recently entered into an alliance
to present a Spring/Summer 2002 collection at the forthcoming Paris Fashion
Week. Bal describes his current line, shown at Delhi's Oberoi, as "soulful"-lots
of pastels, sequins, embroidery, motifs, headgears and outfits that straddle
that thin, post-modern line between western and Indian. Bal claims all
this is wearable ... even the coiffure-like headgear.
 #
So what will brides be wearing this season? "Lots of white gold and
glitter," reveals Devika Gidwani, director of Diamond Trading Company
(DTC), the parent body of De Beers. Last week, at a show organised in
collaboration with Kolkata's P.C. Chandra Jewellers, DTC unveiled its
designs for this wedding season-16 pieces, including diamond chokers in
white gold, necklaces with baguettes, yellow gold neck and earpieces with
mesh or Art Deco.
 If
you were late for the NIFT show by students of the Fashion Design and
Clothing Technology Certificate course at Delhi's Siri Fort, chances are
you had a rush-hour-bus-like experience-hemmed in a crowd, feet jammed
into any available foothold. There was plenty of shimmer and shine in
lehengas and dupattas as well as in the spaghetti tops, skirts, and pants.
Sometimes the collection even rose to the level of wearability. Umesh
Vashisht, Geetanjali Singh, Diksha Kalucha and Sonal Lath bagged the first
prize for best design for a brassy, heavy-on-accessories, Moulin Rougesque
line-all bright fake furs, hot pants, stetsons, and calf-high gold boots.
—Charu Khanna
He's a Beauty
 An
unabashed cross-dresser and a documentary filmmaker were called to be
the judges of a drag queen contest held in suburban Delhi. The 15 men
were wearing wigs, bikinis, satin gowns, artificial eye lashes and faux
breasts, and many of the 200-strong audience swore that they looked as
beautiful as the next women (never mind the Adam's apple). In the question-answer
session, one clever diva explained the enigma of cross-dressing and sexuality
by saying, "Sex is between the legs and gender is between the ears."
And when another one, in a luscious maxi, was asked if he would like to
be born as a man or a woman, he replied, "Well whatever ... but I'd
like to be born in the same clothes." He won.
Food For Play
 Never
mind if Alexander Dumas' Athos, Aramis and Porthos are made to fight over-not
against-Milady. And Asterix and Obelix over Falabela. The group from Alliance
Francaise succeeds in bringing humour to your weekend-dining at Pierre,
the French restaurant in Delhi's Le Meridien. The month-long festival
of food and wine complemented by theatrics complete the image of France's
joie de vivre. The a la carte menu offers smoked salmon, pate de foie
gras and caviar. But vegetarians stay away-a diner was flummoxed to see
all of two cubes of cheese in his what was supposed to be his main dish.
French Minimalism? If only it was at the Riviera.
—Mridula Chettri Singh
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