The Lakme India fashion week displays new trends, breathtaking designs, and new designers on the block.

If the present appears dicey and the future scary, the past is probably worth a closer look. India may be shining in the fourth year of the 21^st century but the India fashion community seems to have pressed the rewind button. And chosen the 70s as their cantonment. Retro is back with a vengeance which is clearly depicted by the vanilla coke ad and the clothes presented at the 5^th India fashion week. With all such changes the bottom line seems to be  “dig out your grandmas old saris from the trunk and cut them into a knee length overcoat to go with a long skirt.” Since the collections shown at the India fashion week were designed keeping in mind the international fall/winter season, whites were clearly absent from the ramp. Only designers like Anju modi & Pooja nayyar wowed the audiences with whites.

The 5^th India fashion week re-introduced some hip and “in” apparels like cigarette pants which are made from flannel, linen, or cotton, these pants have pleats at the leg end that can be pulled together with the help of strings. Drainpipes, which our good ol jeetendra jumped around in most of his movies generally, white in colour. Skirts that are ghagra style teamed with long kurti and corsets that still continue to flatter those slim waistlines.

At the same time certain apparels were out such as bootlegs that was omitted from the designers list, denim that hardly made any appearance and lehengas because skirts overshadowed them and lehengas never got a chance to come out on the ramp.

Some trendy accessories that made a mark at the India fashion week were big bags, bangles, stockings, old metal coins and boots that are a must in the club circuit.

But despite all this of the 57 designers at the India fashion week, only a few were able to strike deals with big buyers because the designers looked more into the past for inspiration instead of working on its own new and creative style.

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