From India To The Wider World.....Fashionweekly...On Fow24news.com

Two things highlighted the fact that Manish Arora has come out of India to the international world. The first was that the designer greeted his audience proudly wearing the red ribbon of the French Légion d'Honneur, of which he has just been made a chevalier.....
The second international success story was that he had persuaded German photographer Ellen von Unwerth and quintessentially Parisian designer Chantal Thomass to model for his show. It was held in a French café near Manish's Paris home, in the area where last year's terror attacks took place.

While his recent collections might have looked like a Bollywood parody of Indian clothing trying to look western, this show went to the Wild West - and triumphed. The mix of bright colours and patterns was still out of India, with all that county's sizzling shades, but the clothes were comprehensible and the patterns controlled. As the models stepped out in their cowboy boots, there was a sense of fun with a stylish streak. Think of a purple-dyed Pomeranian as a fashionable accessory.

The body shape was definitely Dolly Parton western, bringing a waist line to outfits with a differently patterned top and skirt, cinched with a leather and metal belt. If the cut was looser, digital printing - a strength of this designer - would control the space.

Some elements even came out of Africa, as wax-print fabrics and what the designer called "tribal embroidery". Yet he had thought through the themes, for example coherently using denim, that Far West and western-world staple, as a belted waist coat or for Ellen von Unwerth's prairie skirt.

It is so tough for a designer to move from one continent's culture to another, and I commend Manish for making it. Pretty Woman as the soundtrack for the finale summed up this show of controlled exuberance that the designer labelled "prairie goes pop".

Think India! Think pink! And orange or any vivid colour that you do see in India, especially in certain regions.

But there is so much more on offer. And I gave an inner cheer when I saw Rahul Mishra sending out a collection in Paris played out primarily in navy and white; a slim dress caught in at the waist; or a top with a full skirt.