BackWills India Fashion Week | Smeared Anew
Masaba Gupta gives Satya Paul a new bristle and a youthful crackle that it badly needed
Premium(Masaba Gupta’s first collection for Satya Paul that opened Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week’s Autumn-Winter 2013 edition)
You can twist open a tube of lipstick and do at least two things with it: leave it unused, suggesting untried and seductive possibilities. Or, you can use it to smear a collar (why even a billboard) and convey what’s on your mind.
Twenty-four year old Masaba Gupta did both with her first collection for Satya Paul that opened Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week (WIFW) Autumn/Winter 2013 edition at Delhi’s Pragati Maidan on Wednesday.
Used liberally and wackily as a print motif (green and blue too with pop orange) some cleverly embellished, others as modernist black sketches, the lipsticks were Gupta’s core motif, speaking in Satya Paul’s new language.
Tunic dresses, three-way blocked saris worn with Peter Pan blouses, palazzo pants, black and white abstract gowns, armhole saris, luggage pieces, clutches and shoulder bags, maxis with keyhole backs walked the ramp, smearing India’s oldest aunty brand anew.
Gupta used the telephone booth motif too with multi-coloured telephone booth borders worn with embellished jackets.
There was some old formula (bursts of sequins, embellished separates, and big, bold Satya Paul strokes on crepe-silk saris) and then there was a prescription to break the formula: new silhouettes, an intelligent use of the colour grey and youthfulness minus rebellion.
Faced with the task of revitalizing the brand with fresh imagination to lure younger clients, yet not rob Satya Paul—founded in 1985—of its time-worn brand promise, Gupta must have spent many a thoughtful hour at her drawing board.
Now, let’s wait to see how she walks the tightrope between her own sensibility and the Satya Paul signature; the tilt (whichever way it is) will be an interesting one to track.
After all, a brandished lipstick is not going to be enough for a memorable makeover.
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