When social media is making its importance felt in almost every industry, the fashion biz isn’t far behind. In its 15th edition, Lakme Fashion Week Summer/Resort 2015 put together the country’s first Instagram fashion show with one of their regular favourites, Masaba Gupta.
The young designer, known for her bold and now-iconic prints, launched her latest collection, Sugar Plum, on the photo sharing platform. Earlier in the day, Masaba, who is very active on the site, invited her 1,06000 followers to “the world’s largest virtual ‘front row’.” Some people might not have understood the concept, as she tweeted, “Being hounded for passes to my show since morning. Just FYI it’s on Instagram so you kinda have to stay home and watch it! WIFI can be your +1 (sic).”
Instagram fashion shows are not new, but it is likely done for the first time in India. Sean “P. Diddy” Combs brought the runway to Instagram back in 2013 during New York Fashion Week, posting the Sean John Fall collection on his account. While he spaced out his digital runway show throughout the day, starting at 10 a.m. and posting every half hour till 5 p.m., Masaba’s show started at 7.30 p.m. IST and wrapped up in an hour, surprising several followers who assumed that this show too would be plagued by the interminable delays that fashion weeks have become notorious for.
The show was preceded with a few behind-the-scenes videos and shots set to a synthetic version of ‘Sugar, Sugar’ by The Archies. As expected, bright colours and prints were seen, and the cellophane arranged artfully around some models’ head was puzzling, but only till the show began.
If this collection had a flavour, it would undoubtedly be the cloying sweet taste of candies wrapped in shiny, crinkly paper that shimmers and rustles. Oversized gold toffies, red and blue cones and mango-yellow ice cream prints ran through the 19 pieces which had everything from playful off-shoulder dresses and tops, palazzo and pencil pants, patchwork suits and shirts, shift dresses, maxis and miniskirts, a bustier and even an eclectic blazer for the power dresser. Each ensemble had an additional pop of colour from bright headscarves sported by the models. Nargis Fakhri was the showstopper, walking down the ramp in a yellow, ankle-length flounce dress with a hot pink bow and a candy wrapper purse made of cellophane.
While the simple silhouettes were classic Masaba, she moved away from digital prints; the new collection has prints that are almost 3D, incorporating colour blocking with pinks and yellow on white.
While the looks were posted from the Lakme Fashion week handle (@lakmefashionwk) the reposts on Masaba’s feed (@masabagupta) had more likes and comments. Die-hard fans of her work praised the collection, but there were some who were less than happy with some of the pieces.
However, the fact that a runway show was made accessible to just about anyone with a smart phone made it a sweet deal for all involved.
