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The recently concluded first-ever all-male fashion week was quite the treat with designers getting the chance to show off a bit of their 'masculine side'. While there was designs of all sorts on show gamchas made quite the impressions.
Find out just what it is that makes the innocuous piece of cloth the hottest style statement of the season.
Natty threads
Aftab Shivdasani and Dino Morea walked the ramp to promote their film Acid Factory at Samant Chauhan's show. Though we think they'd have been better off with Nitin Bal Chauhan whose acid colours might have been more in tune with the title of the movie.
And even though this may not exactly be your idea of comfort, Samant Chauhan thought it best to use nautical instruments to accessorise his designs. What's more, he even made some of his models wear maps. Now what is it they say about men and asking directions?
We may never really know just what is it about men and gamchas this season. What we do know however is that the piece of clothing is here to stay, at least for a while now, as JJ Vallaya suggests.
Not surprisingly gamchas formed the mainstay of JJ Valaya's collection. The Delhi-based designer brought them out by the dozens and stuck to black and shades of white even as bandhgalas made their presence felt on the ramp.
Known for reviving the dying art form of Kotwara, Meera and Muzaffar Ali's Kotwara for Men showcased sherwanis, achkans, daglas, choghas, kurtas and angharakhas.
Bandhgalas also featured prominently in the collection. Kotwara for Men uses the Awadh techniques of Ari in the traditional sherwani, achkan, dagla, chogha and kurta.
Shorts are in this season along with the gamcha and bandhgala. Narendra Kumar gave the latter two a pass but had at least a couple of models strutting around in shorts.
The collection was inspired by Gabriel Garcia Marquez's award-winning Love in the Time of Cholera. The collection sought to reflect the various stages in a man's life from youthful abundance to the restive rebel. Fabrics used: cotton silk, denim, velvets, silk-wool and brocades.
Contemporary jackets, t-shirts and satin-silk trousers formed the mainstay of Zubair Kirmani's collection. Shades of purple, blue and red were thrown into a black, grey and ivory palette.
The collection scored high on self-texturing sand use of intricate hand embroidery, planned patchworks, colors blocking and geometric patterns. Who said men don't go around in circles!
Move over, metrosexuals -- this one's outright rock-grunge. Acid colours, outrageous prints and funky badges are what Nitin Bal Chauhan wants you to wear. Or is it your kids he's talking to?
The designer showed us just why the sling back was the thing to be wearing -- though we're almost certain that the face paint on the model is entirely optional.
Trust Rajesh Pratap Singh to break from the ordinary. Who needs models when you count designers and artists among your friends. So you had designers Manish Arora and Gaurav Gupta and artist Subodh Gupta among others walking the ramp for Singh.
The line featured clothes in black, white and red. But we must confess that having regular blokes walking the ramp rather than chiseled models came as a breath of fresh air. And yes, the gamcha was there too!
Gaurav Gupta's collection was for all those who hate the conservative but won't go to the other extreme too. T-shirts and jackets in shades of white were the focus of the collection.
An interesting touch to the collection was this shirt that stood out and screamed for attention despite being in good ol' modest white.