The best fashion trends are always spotted on the street. Call it the concrete catwalk.........
beauty
The best fashion trends are always spotted on the street. Call it the concrete catwalk, if you will. While the runway showcases what’s coming next in fashion, the streets display not only the future but also what’s on-trend right now. Every year the lawn season arrives with much excitement and anticipation for something new; and we surely got it this time too.
This summer lawn is diverse in nature and manages to capture the essence of the market trends encompassing psychedelic and ethnic prints, pastel colour shades and sartorial detailing. The designer trends include philosophy that revolves around softer construction and vibrant prints; drawing inspiration from the splendour of nature and mystique cultures of the world. Sana Omar, the maverick behind Republic Women’s wear, sheds light on their recent collaboration with Crimson and its campaign.
“We were already in collaboration with Crimson when I started off my business in 2016 and came up with a luxury collection with them. It was pre-decided at that time that we will step into lawn eventually as well,” tells Sana. “We are doing wedding collections but as a brand we had to venture into lawn because it makes so much sense. Once your brand is at a spot where your couture is something that people are in awe of that it is imperative that design aesthetic is translated into for the masses.”
The beautifully encapsulated nine articles in two colour ways amalgamates design trends for Spring/Summer ‘19, ranging from a mix of psychedelic and ethnic prints, pastel colour shades and sartorial detailing that whispers luxury in its very warp and weft. “We keep ourselves ahead and innovate trends. I appreciate how Khaadi has made inroads with their indigenous fabric so we thought why not we start the concept of ‘lawn street fashion’.
The people here do follow runway fashion but if you look at the people of Milan or Paris’s streets and the way they dress up, it is a fashion in itself too. There are specific bloggers that capture photographs of regular people and the way they dress up, put things together and how cool they look. So, we thought of coming up with an idea of showing lawn as in street wear. Street fashion is a thing in abroad so we perceived the concept. Why limit fashion to runway? It’s also important to see how anyone dresses up daily in a natural environment,” highlights Sana.
Pulling a look by mixing and matching the three-piece lawn jora that can be done up in various styles to suit to any occasion is an interesting idea. A kimono style or wrap can be stylised with mid-calf tights and a plain top for a more conservative look. While the same dress can be worn by elevating the accessories like adding a dramatic jewellery piece and complemented with a clutch for a formal wear. The top with a myriad of options - halter necks, cut-out sleeves, peplum and unusual combos - spin a fresh, funky appeal with a girly vibe.
With edgy production technologies for weaving, dying, embroidery and printing and with a firm commitment to quality, CrimsonxRepublic is seemingly excited about new things such as hand-done mirror work. “We have done things that no one has so far tried doing it, for instance experimenting with gotta on a dupatta. We can’t do mundane.
We have gotten print composed onto embroidery and done warq printing on two toned dupattas dyed in a way that no one has ever done before,” enthuses Sana.
Owing its success, Sana acknowledges the efforts of the producer and the brand’s mantra of offering accessible and experimental design aesthetics, “The lawn is a value for money and I have to give credit to the producer, Anum Akram.
She is willing to go a notch above as she is very flexible and has told us to innovate, which I think other textile mill owners would never offer to us because of limited machinery options. But her vision was for us to go all out and experiment just the way we did when we introduced the unstitched wedding collection. She would sometimes send her production managers visit the units to get handwork done which is unheard of. Some of our fabric was especially woven for us in India including the chanderi net.”
The next move for the brand is to try to encourage people to dress up more in the way they want to rather than taking up celebrities. “Giving your own touch to a garment is more important for how anyone would like to tailor their outfits. For that, sky is the limit,” concludes Sana.
