Winter brings out the best in fashion—with many ways to look cool while staying warm. Priyanka Singh lists out the many options that fashion offers and not only to the fashionable

With winter making itself felt, it’s time to get the woollens out. And the good thing is that for long now winter is no more about monkey caps, bulky jerseys and Kulu socks! One can retain the chic look with some care. Here’s how—

For those high on western wear, one can never get it wrong with a swing coat or a long coat— though the length this season is thigh or shorter—in warm shades like tan, beige, chocolate and mustard. Designers look to Europe for fashion where coats are versatile to adapt, hence, it can be worn safely each winter.

Shrugs and leggings (fish net, stripes or textured) with one-piece trapeze dresses are in, as are slim fit denims and flat-front straight trousers in Scottish checks, corduroys, sand wash and tweed finish.

Warm tunics and sweater dresses ward off the chill stylishly and can be teamed with tights (woollen or lycra). Tights will also go very well with knee-length cropped skirt and a fitted pullover, says Priyanka Khosla, MD, Flying Cats.

Last year fur was huge and the trend continues this season, too, with fur making an appearance on jackets, boots and handbags. Broad woollen headbands and fitted caps are going strong while scarves in silk and stoles (crochet, lace, sequinned) are staple.

Those who like to keep it simple and traditional, a good idea will be to coordinate. Use contrasting shawls and dupatta in opposite shades besides mixing and matching textures and colours. Stick to thermals but avoid long cardigans with suits, instead go for shorter ones that fit snugly.

Never combine a blazer with a suit but it goes nicely with sarees. If we are looking at the December-January winter, a long coat will always complement a saree.

Fashion Flair Swing coats; mid-thigh coats Sweater dresses; tunics Woollen leggings, shrugs Fur on coats, boots, handbags Fitted leather jackets Layered suits with clean lines Fashion Gaffe Bulky leather jackets Conventional denim jackets Long cardigans/blazers with suits Wedge/platform heels Complex silhouette lines

The colour palette will comprise moss green, dark lilac, wine, dirty pastels in darker tones like ash pink and earthy tones, says Salil Gulati of Splurge (Delhi), Aza (Mumbai) and Gulati Stores. Silhouettes are out in suits with neat, elegant classic lines being the flavour, as was seen in the Lakme fashion week, he says.

Churidars continue to be popular but with fewer “chunats.” Layered suits look stylish and have gone longer than before. Kurtis have been replaced with tunics that are comfortably fitted, he says, adding that the embroidery should be fine and limited. If a suit is rich and well cut, a plain pashmina shawl will do very well. The understated style is always classy.

Ritu Kochar, Corporate Director, INIFD, says boots look cool and never really go out of style. These could be in the shape of pumps or stilts. Wedge and platform heels are out.

Go for warm colours like deep greens, navy, charcoal grey and browns in trousers but go easy on linen as it is a thin fabric, best suited for summer, she cautions. Linen jacket could, however, be paired with a thin turtleneck sweater for a sleek look.

Fitted leather jackets are in vogue, even as big ones with bold buttons and bulky zips and buckles have been done to death. Conventional denim jackets should also be given the pass.

The colours to watch out for this winter are black, red, purple and fuchsia, says Vandana Worrell, a fashion stylist. Metallic colours in clothes and accessories, besides textured materials in houndtooth and varied weaves would rule the roost. Brocades and silk, as always, would complete the formal style.

A-line coats and the girlie look would be in with a lot of lace and embroidery. A fashion gaffe would be to mix too many elements and look overdone. Subtlety is the watchword, she adds.

Lastly, panache comes with the attitude. Red carpet glam may look good just there. Ramp fashion may not necessarily translate into off-ramp style statement. For instance, a short person should not wear long coats just because it is in. It will only make one look shorter.

The focus should be on turning out well. Fashion is what you make of it. Go on, make your own fashion this winter.

Everyone likes company but what do you say about someone who likes a hand as a travelling companion! Alliance Française de Chandigarh (Sector 36) and the French Embassy in India is organising an exhibition of photographs titled ‘Hand Made – La Main’ by French photographer Thibaut Chapotot where this bizarre buddy finds himself occupying pride of place in the photographs on display.

Chapotot, a Paris-based photographer studied at the MJM, a Paris photography institute after which he started shooting fashion shows, including Israeli designer Sonia Rykiel’s collections before moving on as a press reporter and travelling to Asia and particularly Korea as part of his work.

Now this avant-garde artist has decided to dedicate himself to artistic creations and documentary photography and with it came this hand.

Amputated from a plastic mannequin in a warehouse in paris, Chapotot’s hand has travelled the wide world before landing in India where it accompanied the photographer right from the Spiti Valley in India to Seoul in Korea to New York in America and even in hometown Paris where this allegory is repeated.

‘La Main’ is a result of part of this quest. Quirky, terrifying, fascinating, mischievous and even poignant, the hand in these photographs evokes all kinds of emotions and then some more!

The hand is extended to the curious onlooker and this photographer captures the strange encounters that arise as a dialogue between life and still life. Here is where the hand acquires a symbolic dimension. From the amusement on the face of the Himachali woman darting a look at the hand, which lies near her weaving loom to the curiosity on a little child’s face to abject indifference of a chaiwala to a heart-rending fascination on the face of a physically-disabled boy, Chapotot captures it all.

The hand plays carom, reads books, even applies mehndi before wandering off as part of someone hanging baggage. It explores cultures, social milieus and in effect remains that one single element of the human body that everyone uses without paying attention to its caste, creed or colour, preceding the artist wherever he goes worming its way into conversations, thoughts and ideas.

But all of his photographs, it is the ones taken in India that speak most eloquently as the interplay comes across most easily. He did say that Indians are great sports and loved being photographed and so it is in evidence here.

With 32 works on display, the collection also includes some of Chapotot’s digital photographs of ordinary day-to-day elements interesting for their perspective and colour. Do watch out for the man pulling at his little dog on leash.

The exhibition is up for viewing at the Art Gallery, Alliance Française, Sector 36 till December 2

Glitzy flamboyance is the flavour of this season too. We say this in addition to chocolate and bling spicing it up this year as well. In fact the more the merrier and as the fashion designers come traipsing into our city, one cannot help but believe Chandigarh has arrived.

In the middle of the fashion tours et al arrived dressed-in-red, warm and effusive, confident and earthy designer Deepika Gehani.

Deepika’s colourful and robust collection retails at ‘Samsaara’ at the Taj-17 and after a quick tête-à-tête you realise why she is here—the city loves her clothes!

“I really wanted to get a feel of what women in this city like, what their body structure is like, how conservative or forward-looking they are,” she smiles pointing out to the wonderful height Punjabi kudis possess, their broader frames and yes their penchant for well bling (the word is set in stone currently!)

Here to also showcase her Winter/Bridal 2006 collection she lists out lots of embellishments and dark colours in silks, velvets and tanchois as a must this season. “My clothes are well-styled, peppered with ornamentation and textured interestingly too.” Well put because her outfits with leather embellishments have been hot sellers. Couple this with pearls, shells, satin flowers and appliqué work and you have funky creations to get into.

And imagine designing for her own label happened simply because 12 years ago, having worked in design houses, she wanted to go smaller and reduce her work load. “I started my own label in 2000 but was I wrong in imagining the work would be less,” she laughs.

And since the seasons keeping coming up and festivals keep springing around the corner and people want more, so next in line are one piece-dress for Christmas and New Year (a special collection that Deepika does every year) and a promise to keep bringing sleeveless, halters, spaghettis out of the closet and into our city in interesting avatars.

— G.R.

There is an air of quiet confidence about this young artist. Neither does she give any voluble descriptions of her work nor are her drawings characterised by loud flamboyance, but 23-year-old Kapila Verma’s first solo showing is eloquent for her understated but incredible talent.

This final year student of painting from the College of Art, Sector 10 has put up 17 drawings, all in pen and ink, etched out on simple sheets. The exhibition titled ‘Spiritual Nature’ is her ode and her homage to nature as a healer, believer and preserver. “It is the best part of anything we know as beautiful. In fact we are also creations of nature — a force that balances and sustains, all the while providing us a sense of innocence, vital to living,” she explains.

In fact nature through art is a quest she began when she in the Class IX when she joined sculptor Roshan Ansal’s classes. “He once said to me that whatever you think should be free and whatever you feel you should do irrespective of whether it is right or wrong and that really changed by thinking.”

Kapila points to her very first painting, a large composition with just leaves. “This first one was very difficult because each detail must come out and every element and principle of drawing must be kept in mind,” she smiles.

And that is where her drawings score. Textures, patterns, designs and details all come alive as they beat in pulse with the rhythms of nature she is trying to capture in her works.

But this young girl is a purist and is working hard to keep the essence of her craft alive. But what is the quintessence of her art?

“It is the dot because all drawing work started with this. I am trying to highlight this aspect because art has veered away from this simple position.”

With roop (form) and the bhav (feeling) as her keystones, she is celebrating nature in her drawings and her form is beautiful, her lines clean and her drawings poignant and full of depth. “Nature is not a bud but the fragrance within that bud. If we cannot feel it around us, how can we express it?” she asks.

The pen flows, the ink creates swirls of textures. In two drawing she likens nature to God manifest as Shiva, one as a shivling nestled in the bed of nature with snakes creating a pulsating pattern on it and another in the form of dumroos. “When Shiva dances everything becomes beautiful and even when he destroys, everything is calm,” she explains earnestly.

In another work, she draws a path to heaven through leaves, which represent earth embodying a universal truth. “Everyone has to go there and God has created it so there is nothing to be afraid of,” she smiles.

Stems, leaves, buds, water and even roots find beautiful illustration in Kapila’s drawing which are filled to the brim with elements of nature all with a careful and creative hand. No texture is repeated and no two works look the same. While the spiritual depth is hers alone, the works brim over with a dynamic perspective to nature.

Next in her mind is a move towards graphic art and until she works that one out she will continue to sit in the sun and draw her leaves, inking each with all the passion she can muster for each painting is literally a part of her.

The exhibition is on at the Indusind Bank Art Gallery, SCO 53-54, Sector 8C, Madhya Marg.

Lord Krishna arrived in the city today with a heady mix of Sanskrit-Hindi and long spiritual messages. And by the time we stripped him off his Krishna avatar, we got to know about his new one, this time as a narrator of Sony Entertainment Television’s Man Mein Hai Visshwas.

No we are not talking of the real Lord Krishna instead we are talking of reel-life Krishna aka Nitish Bharadwaj straight from B. R. Chopra’s epic Mahabharata. In the city to talk about his serial it seemed that Nitish couldn’t forget his dialogues from the epic which made him a household name.

For an actor who has more than just lived the character of Krishna, philosophy is a science of living which “if not practised becomes a book on the shelf”. About his eternal character of Krishna, Nitish says “I believe God used me as his representation.” So what keeps multi-faceted Nitish, who is a veterinary surgeon, a theatre director, an actor, a politician and a director (he directed a documentary Karam Yogi), going?

Prompt comes the reply, “Spirituality”. He even goes so far as to describe Man Mein Hai Visshwas as a “first spiritual and not mythological attempt” in Indian Television history. “Each episode showcases experiences of people whose lives have changed after they experienced incidents that can be described as nothing but miracles.”

So where does all this spirituality comes from? “My parents fed me on a constant diet of Gyaneshwari and Bhagwad Geeta” (Interestingly his mother happens to be a Ph.D in Bhagwad Geeta). Nitish, who started his acting career as a child actor, was spotted at a school function by late Smita Patil where he was directing a play and from then on his career moved.

Very soon Nitish would be seen donning the director’s cap when he launches is first commercial film. Not spilling any beans on this one, Nitish says, “This will purely be a commercial film.” With life coming a full circle, all one can say to this otherwise happy and content man is Dhanya ho Krishna!

You don’t call them the jet age kids for nothing! Meet this awesome foursome from the city who bonded on the way back from a debate competition in Delhi and struck upon the idea of forming a platform where debaters from all over the world can unite, express, compete and debate over problems facing the world today and be judged impartially. Akshay Vashishth, class 10 from Saint Johns, Aruj Garg, class 11 from Hansraj Public School, Ashmita Gupta, class 12 from Sacred Heart and Manonit Kaur, class 12 from Shivalik Public School, have formed a debating society called Wordz, to popularise public speaking. These jet age kids are also organising a debating competition called Hanuman Das Chaudhary Memorial Debate on the topic of ‘In the opinion of the house, is mercy petition valid’ on November 24. They plan to make this an annual affair.

Debating is popular as such, but these kids feel that youngsters today do not know how to use it well. “Many are very shy in expressing themselves like in an interview or at any other platform in life, keeping them from success,” says Aruj. “Life after school is very different and students need to be equipped for it while they are in school, and debating skills can bring out the best in them”, says Ashmita.

“Our society is going to be more a of a personality development forum, wherein kids will be encouraged to come out of their protected cocoons and take on the big wide world out there”, says Akshay. “There are certain stereotypes associated with being a good student, like one who is always into books is said to be studious and one into debating is most likely to be called a vehla by peers,” says Manonit. “Such blocks hold us back and can take years to come out of such factors”, they say in unison. With sixteen schools from the tri-city taking part in the first competition as well as one from Himachal and 70 members of the society from all over the country as well as from Bulgaria, Kuala Lumpur, Czech Republic and Russia, these young guns are going on strong.

Why such a hurry to be ready for the world outside? Shubhasya Shighram comes the reply………Happy talking, kids.