Cannes 2013 is on and this year the festival will see the largest contingent from Bollywood as Cannes is celebrating 100 years of Indian Cinema. Bollywood stars who have already landed at the French Riviera are Amitabh Bachchan as the 12-Day Cannes Film Festival opened with the screening of The Great Gatsby, Vidya Balan who is part of the illustrious jury, the lovely Frieda Pinto and Sonam Kapoor who is there as one of the Brand Ambassadress for L’Oreal.
Cannes Film Festival is keenly watched by fashionistas to dwell over the style quotient of divas from the celluloid. Vidya 
Balan made three appearances, all in traditional Indian wear by Sabyasachi Mukherjee – one in a maroon lehenga (I particularly loved the simple Choli bereft of any gaudy embellishment), another in a lovely ivory saree paired with a brown blouse with gold embroidery on the shoulders and a final one in a peach coloured lehenga-styled in Mughal regality for the Gatsby screening. The final look was a little OTT for me.
Big B made a couple of appearances. The sporty/safari jacket that Bachchan donned was out of place. Rest of the Gatsby team were dressed up in greys and blacks. Bachchan’s striped blue Safari jacket and white pants and shoes did not compliment his natural style. And gawd that belt at the waist was a disaster. At The Great Gatsby screening Amitabh Bachchan was again the odd one out in his shimmering BLINGY jacket. Could have gone for a Bandhgala with sober embellishment if he wanted BLING.
Sonam Kapoor please apna Nath utaar do. (No pun intended! Nath Utaarna also means losing virginity, which I am sure Sonam’s done with.) Our stylish diva too opted for an off-white saree (Anamika I think) with a lattice work full-sleeve jacket for Gatsby screening but that huge nose ring was definitely an eye sore. Another appearance in a scalloped Anamika Khanna jacket with lattice work paired over high-waist pants was chic. She was also spotted with Frieda Pinto in a black and grey ensemble was nice too but I have my reservations over wether those gold danglers went with the look.
Oh yes Mallika Sherawat too was there at The Great Gatsby screening in an yellowish-orange sleeveless gown. Thank god there wasn’t any slits or sheerness or cleavage revealing elements in her ensemble.
Manish Arora showcased his Fall-Winter 2013 Collection that he showed at the Paris Fashion Week on 28th February at Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week F/W 2013 Grand Finale too. The set at the finale show was grander, the models were from India and some amazing Trance music played on Live. Sonam Kapoor was their in the audience dressed in a Manish Arora saree.
Designer Manish Arora showcased his Ready-To-Wear (RTW) Fall-Winter 2013 collection at the Paris Fashion Week on 28th February and yes, the collection was typical ‘Manish Arora’. However I felt that he cramped in too many stories or fashion elements in his 45-pieces collection.
There were multiple looks cramped in: one emphasizing psychedelic geometric digital prints, second one that hewed to the very Indian colors of pink and yellow and featured Deco black crystal embroidery, and then a sedate look in textural navy and black that Arora had decorated with various kinds of jewel-like embellishment.
In addition to that, there was a knitwear category, a first time use of knits by Manish that had navy Lurex pieces worn with piles of gold jewelry. The textural black and navy looks were probably the best part of Manish Arora’s Fall 2013 collection. The trim skirts and tops with multicolor stones were nice too.
By the way Manish Arora’s Fall-Winter 2013 RTW collection was inspired by the Burning Man festival in Nevada.
Preity Zinta may be missing from Bollywood but was spotted at Milan Fashion Week last night. Is she going the ‘Sonam Kapoor’ way??? Well PZ was with Manav Gangwani, designer cum luxury biz (Infinite Luxury) entrepreneur at the Roberto Cavalli show.
Dressed in a jacket cinched at the waist over a slit-skirt, Preity Zinta looked chic. In the photograph that was taken outside Cavalli show the other girl with Manav Gangwani and Preity Zinta is Simrin Choudrie in a fur coat. The trio were heading for the Pucci show next.
So will it be ‘Fashionista in Milan’ by Preity Zinta after ‘Ishq in Paris’??? By the way what happened to ‘Ishq in Paris’? Any news about it guys???
PS: The photographs here are property of fashionscandal.com. Do not use it in any manner without due permission!
Wearing the latest couture outfit or wrapping yourself up in latest fashion labels head to toe doesn’t make you fashionable. Yet our so-called fashionistas do just that so very often. Preparing this list of ‘fashion victims’ was difficult as had numerous suggestions. In fact I have totally avoided the new breed of crappy Page-3 types that find space in out newspaper tabloids as they don’t even qualify to be called ‘fashion-victims’. So Sapna, Dimple, Pushpanjali, Salloli, Vandy, Meenakshi, Ramola, Sangeeta, Kanchan, Preeti, Mamta and the types, you are spared. Will probably create a section – ‘fashion assault’ sometime soon.
A fashionable lady for me is somebody who knows her assets and 
flaws and dresses accordingly. The fashion victims I listed here are simply ignoring that basic factor about dressing up. Look at Nita Ambani. She looks graceful in a sari or an Anaarkali but what on earth made her wear these apron-type dresses? Nita you can go-back 20-years on Cover shoot courtesy airbrushing but not when it comes to dressing. Same goes for Sunanda Tharoor. She looks pretty in a sari but hey please make sure your blouse doesn’t have a wet patch around the under-arms. The dhoti-salwar is ugg! And Gauri Khan…that bronze look and cleavage show is getting a wee bit too much. Satin is an unforgiving fabric that reveals every bump and roll so if you wearing one, you better keep your posture taut.
Sonam Kapoor is the darling of the desi rag-mags. She’s been on the cover of almost all. But I feel at times Sonam go-overboard to flaunt the esoteric labels she has in her closet and look like a ‘pelican’. Remember her boobs almost spilled out of the Gaultier gown? Her broad shoulders aren’t flattering too in bare-shoulder numbers. Tanisha Mohan too has a wardrobe that any woman would envy and yet at times she wears clothes that can’t help but being labeled as ‘fashion victim’. Priya Sachdev in a sleeveless number is a disaster. I had written about it earlier here. Those unsightly folds around the armpit are better kept covered. Don’t you think so?
And what do I say about Queenie Singh? She has gone so much under the knife that she looks like a shriveled up raisin. Wearing short dresses doesn’t make her look fab. In fact those bony knee-caps stand out as an eyesore. Plunging necklines are fine but what about the saggy boobs?
In my previous post – Bling Boys – Cavalli and Gangwani – posted on the 15th of January 2012 ( http://wp.me/p1C8a1-MR) where I wrote about Roberto Cavalli and Manav Gangwani spotted together at the Milan Menswear Week, I had an inkling of some kind of tie-up working out but I preferred to wait till the papers were signed. Manav Gangwani is on a diversification spree and his fashion retail wing – the Infinite Luxury Group is the Indian Licensee for the Roberto Cavalli Brand.
Just Cavalli was introduced in India by Genesis Luxury but the contract was terminated in 2010. Roberto Cavalli is the premium label from Cavalli and the first mono-brand store of Roberto Cavalli is scheduled to open in Delhi at the DLF Emporio in May 2012. The 4000 square feet, boutique will embody the modern elegance and glamour of the Cavalli world, and represent the innovative ‘global fashion store’ concept, like other Cavalli flagship stores located in other major cities like London, Paris, Tokyo and New York. The boutique will be created using the finest materials, many of which are produced in Italy exclusively for Roberto Cavalli. The Indian boutique will feature women’s and men’s prêt-à-porter collections, as well as accessories, eyewear, timewear and kidswear.
While Sonam Kapoor was Tweeting and feeding the Indian media about gracing the front-row at the Roberto Cavalli Fall 2012 RTW Show in Milan and tom-tomming about dining with Roberto Cavalli, Manav Gangwani was giving the final touches to this partnership deal. Besides fashion Cavalli Cafe is also opening up at the DLF Emporio and the buzz is that Cavalli Club too is in the Infinite Luxury Group’s plan of schemes soon.
Speaking on this venture, Mr. Roberto Cavalli – President of the Roberto Cavalli Group – stated: “I am sure that Indian ladies will love Cavalli clothes and will be great customers in my store as my fashion seems perfect for them. Indian women are beautiful, elegant, sophisticated, sensual and they want to look divine and fantastic. I do believe in the Indian market and I love the taste for fashion of Indian people …. they have a way to mix and match bright colors that is so exciting, and really close to my optimistic vision of fashion and glamour”.