Turn on the white heat

Manpriya Singh

It’s difficult to see things in black and white. All the more difficult, when there’s ivory, beige, cream, pearl, snow and fifty shades of off-white to play with. As much as fashion, white is what you’re offered every season, each quarter in the collection notes. Just a little transformed to suit the festive, holiday, summer wardrobes. For the countless hues of the colour, a few ground rules to nail it.

Little White Dress

It’s time the much worn and even more acknowledged LBD, gave way to their white counterparts. Trade one for a white night out. Rock it like Rihanna did, her flirty little white dress worn with pearls and white strappy heels at last year’s New York Fashion Week. The Lady In White (read Simi Garewal) has often attributed the love for the colour, “to peace and tranquility that it signifies.”

Mix and match

Moving on, Kiran Uttam Ghosh’s Summer Resort 2015 collection was conformist, non- conformist and somewhere in-between. While she was pairing global silhouettes with local handloom, she paired along the classic white shirt with a handloom skirt. The vibrancy of the colour-coordination brought along the energy in clothes when she offset the ivory and cream by nudes and all shades of blush, fresh coral, lipstick red, aubergine and gold in its varied avatars.

Shares Suchana Parasrampuria, renowned Mumbai-based designer, “A good way of going about white is to team it up with a little colour that ranges from coral to other brighter hues. And yes, it can just as much make for an evening wear and even a cocktail dress. It’s a question of wearing it right. One can team things up with emerald jewellery.”

She adds, “A gold chiffon dupatta can enliven and formalize any Indian outfit. Anyway the colour forecast for 2015 is an all ivory, beiges.” She further advocates at making the outfit playful, ‘by pairing a short choli with pants and carrying a coloured bag’.

Neha Dhupia donned the showstopper dress by Sonu Dharnidharka at the Lakme Fashion Week S/R 2015. Inspired by the classic beauty of ancient Greco-Roman fashion, the outfit brought out the beauty of a creamy white dress when teamed with metallic embellishments.

manpriya@tribunemail.com