Fying pallus and other drama

Sitting in the front row at designer Swapnil Shinde's Frozen Fragility show made us feel as if we were in watching an eerie movie in a cinema hall. His supporters hooted for him, which could be heard over the din of the loud background score, a remixed version of the song ‘Kahin deep jale kahin dil'. On cue, with the haunting score emerged a flash of laser lights.

Shinde's collection was inspired by the horror films of 1950s and '60s Bollywood. Models sashayed in flowy, billowy silhouettes; we spotted an ode to the trademark flying pallu. Shinde used cinched waists to hark back to the era too.

The elaborate wing-like shoulders made the models look like they were floating on the ramp. Shinde created different textures with the help of pleating and crimping. The sari gowns make for great red carpet outings and the golden chunky belts helped add some bling to the monochrome outfits. The colour palette ranged from black, silver and white to bold red and yellow. Gauging from several collections by Indian and international designers, chunky metallic embellishments and armour-like detailing seem to be trending big this season. u00a0