In the ongoing 11th edition of India Couture Week 2018, a designer who made his debut this season was Amit Aggarwal. Known for engineering modern and innovative couture, he showcased his 'Crystalis' collection that saw experimental textiles created using modern industrial materials through traditional zardozi and ari hand techniques. While Amit has styled various Bollywood divas on numerous occasions, for this show, his showstopper was his favourite muse Shilpa Shetty. We all have seen Shilpa in many glamorous saree looks, and its particularly her tryst with modern sarees that has been top notch.
Amit's collection is inspired by two natural phenomena: the formation of crystals at a molecular level and the enveloping of the metallic chrysalis around a butterfly cocoon. And with that thought, he created a range of handcrafted three-dimensional embroideries in various crystalline and bio mimicked forms and motifs that gave fabrics a unique visual.
For the show, Shilpa walked the ramp looking gorgeous as ever in a radiant plum saree that had all the elements from the collection - right from colour, silhouette, structure and detail. Shilpa carried the modern and eclectic piece, which was a drape with a feeling of a flared lehenga, completely contemporary for a new age bride.
While Shilpa's saree glistened, just like crystals, while she walked down the ramp, her stylish halter blouse too was hard to miss, which had edgy cuts.
One of the most compelling visuals in the presentation were the extensive silhouettes morphing different aspects of traditional Indian and Western couture shapes with each other and infusing them with structure and form. The colour palette for Crystalis consisted of metallic shades of rose gold, silver, pewter and light gold along with jewel tones of rose quartz, silver onyx, emerald, amethyst, topaz and sapphire bringing the designs to life gracefully.
As part of his Couture 2018 presentation, Amit Aggarwal brought to life a series of collaborations for jewellery, footwear and textiles with some of the leading designers and artists from across the country. Together with Tanira Sethi he created one-of-a kind, engineered and embellished cashmere draped pieces. Stunning Outhouse jewellery was crafted by founders and jewellery designers Kaabia Grewal and Sasha Grewal. For footwear, the collaboration with Nidhi Bhandari worked supremely well when a range of the Amit Aggarwal textile techniques, were employed to craft the shoes, composing each couture look to the final detail.
Amit Aggarwal Couture 2018 collection 'Crystalis' will subsequently be available at the Amit Aggarwal Flagship store at The Kila Seven Style Mile, Mehrauli, New Delhi and other high-end retail stores nationwide.