Malvika’s Ramblings

Rain down on Me
And sweep me away
In scented winds
And scattered drops
Let them whiplash here and there
Let me look up heavenwards
Let the drops trickle down my throat
Down the collar
Into my printed windy dress
The abandon of the rain
The abandon of my colours
The abandon of my shape
No running away
No saving leather shoes
No scampering to the sheltered kerb
Only running, dashing, wildly spinning
Or walking with the calm of a ramp scorcher
Hands in my pockets,
Walking down with a haute the pouring rain cant cool

I called upon my sources (I will have to kill you if I tell you), my powers and a fashion stylist, editor and writer and here are five looks for this monsoon season. Here is telling you before the junta knows it!

1 Slouchy Sporty
In the summer the Kate Moss look was a rage. This look meant a long clingy jersey top over tights or leggings. The ensemble was completed with a belt strapped low over the jersey top. This look has changed into a less dressy version for the monsoon. Wear a large voluminous bubble-silhouette top over fitting shorts or capris. For those who can carry it off, really short shorts are in. More movement and prance in this look. Go for draping tops, ones with interesting folds and necklines.

2 Strawberry Frog
strawberry : pink, bright, candy
frog: translucent (Lookah at the veins under my throat skin), waterproof, pretty, glossy, rain-lover
Be a strawberry frog this monsoon. Have fun with colours and plastic. No subtleity. Its the only time in the year when even yellow Zens look pretty zipping down the road. Its a colour party.
Checklist >
Crocs - the toy like plastic footwear in yellow, orange, pink, green
Jelly sandals and slippers
Clear plastic raincoats
Chunky bangles
Neon colours
Bug eyes shades - pink, green, blue

3 Bold abstract prints
Huge prints are in. Look like a splash of colour on the street. Dresses are majorly in - Shift dresses, babydoll dresses, tent dresses. Hemlines below the knee are criminal. Let your legs be happily bare and sexy. Accessorize with chunky bangles. Its all BOLD. The prints are Pucci style - abstract and dynamic made up of swirls and organic motifs. Try a parka dress - a lil conversation with the hip-hoppers.
Here are some designs by Pucci -

4 Romantic look
A girl’s gotta feel like a girl and bless the fashion mechanism, the romantic look is back! Its simple floral, pastoral dresses this monsoon to make you feel like an innocent country lass. Keep the colours light like leaf-green for a dewy fresh feeling. Says designer Anjana Bhargava “Its all about elegance, grace and femininity. This monsoon, flaunt your femininity in calf-length skirts and dresses with frills, lace, romantic necklines and puff sleeves that look girly and chic. ”

5 Metallics
Yes. Its still going on. Watch out for metallic parkas, shimmering tops, shiny sportswear. Flash and glint under the sombre nimbus clouds. Break the dullness, thunder and opaque rain. The metallic look generally makes for rocking nightlife, but it can be incorporated in casuals by means of detailing like metallic strips, pockets, zippers. Its not the classic metallic of the mellow golden ages. Its the metallic of Techno Glam.

So don’t get bored this monsoon. Don’t weep inside your stupid raincoat for the lack of oomph and style. These are the five looks, inspiration material, green signals, imagination stimulants or simply working solutions to adopt. Last of all, a fashion tip that guarantees to transform you into a head turner - wear whites with no underwear!

Avoid
- Leather
- Ankle length skirts, pants
- Dark colours
- Socks
- Mixing looks (Strawberry frog + Metallics)

If you want to buy Chanel, you can just drop in at the exclusive Chanel packed away in the Imperial Hotel, New Delhi amidst marbled splendour. Parisian models were flown in and the lawns at the hotel were redesigned in October 2005 to announce Chanel discreetly to India.
Its been about a year since Luxury brands like LVMH and Chanel arrived in the developing nations. However, the brand makes sure that the snobbery sewn into the seam lines of Chanel remains intact. Coco Chanel, the founder of the house of Chanel, spent enough time being looked down upon by French mistresses and socialites. She made sure through a series of alliances, strategic love affairs and astute business sense to reach that level in the social ladder where she could do the looking down at. Pampered with furs and jewels and Rolls Royces, she created and enjoyed luxury.
However it had not always been so for her. She was brought up in the austere land of Auverge in France and had been a child of poverty and infidelity. Her mother was frail and sickly and her father a philanderer. She was a tough, fierce little girl who grew up into a relentless flirt. While she was involved in romantic liaisons with different men, each more successful and rich than the other, she enjoyed her independence and freedom. She often got attached to the men and on losing them, would find respite in work.
In an age where women wore frothy dresses and gravity defying hairdos, Chanel felt tiny, flat chested and an outcast. She made public appearances with her boyfriend ‘Boy’ Capel to overhear remarks like ’severe’ and ’spare’ about herself.

Indignation and vanity and perhaps, a hint of eccentricity, inspired her towards making daring moves like donning on elegant pyjamas and pants in the French Page 3 society. Pragmatism and logic were the cornerstones of her design; Androgyny wasn’t, she insisted. She knew that falling trees must be heard and she publicised her designs aggressively by asking celebrities to wear them to casual dinners where they would surely be followed by the paparazzi. She sought well chiselled lades who exuded inherent style and a superior attitude. Chanel was as much a brand builder as a designer!
She created the Chanel classics – No.5 which has been the largest selling perfume in the world since 1929, the lil’ black dress which is a simple design that took a daring designer to introduce to the world, the string of fake pearls and tweed jackets with sharp contours and skinny sleeves.
After an age of flounces and frills where women were corseted partridges, Chanel brought in a sense of minimalist style. She said of the fruit and feather laden hats that women wore, “How can the brain function in those things?” When the Duke of Westminster presented rare diamonds and emeralds, matching bracelets of rubies, brilliant sapphires, she preferred to put on her string of pearls saying, “It is disgusting to wander loaded down with millions around the neck just because one happens to be rich.”
She could never reconcile herself with Christian Dior’s designs. He was the next big fashion guru after her and got famous for re-introducing feminity with his waspies - the silhouettes with a tiny waist and large skirts. So Chanel is not just a fashion house but also a fashion religion with her own set of rules and ethics. Do you subscribe?