It wasn't a planned ode to the physicist who dared to do away with the classical theory of event-horizon beyond which even light can't escape. But Stephen Hawking died Wednesday morning, and the black and white setup at the Amazon India Fashion Week that started on March 14 almost looked like a tribute to him.
"What does this tell us about whether it is possible to fall in a black hole, and come out in another universe... The message of this lecture, is, that black holes ain't as black as they are painted. They are not the eternal prisons they were once thought. Things can get out of a black hole, both to the outside, and possibly, to another universe. So, if you feel you are in a black hole, don't give up. There's a way out," Hawking once said in a lecture.
And even though he was talking about the possibilities of an alternative route to another universe via the black hole, the theory was poetic. He made black holes not so dreary and perhaps it was the hope of crawling out of a dark zone that resonated with everyone. And maybe it is just a coincidence that the theme of the fashion week was black and white, but still it celebrated the starkness of black, as the world mourned the passing away of the man who said we need not be afraid of black holes. And even if unplanned, the fashion week is a fitting tribute in a country that has often associated black with "inauspicious" in the sense that wedding trousseau always excludes black. It is a color of mourning. And what could be better than to accidentally celebrate black on the day Hawking died. Hawking said space-time had no boundaries, and therefore there is no moment or creation and there is always another universe you could travel to after falling into a black hole.
Delhi-based Designer Samant Chauhan opened the show with his collection called It's a Glitch, which was inspired by the story of Jonathan I, a painter who turned totally colorblind at the age of 65 after meeting with an accident. As reported and written by neurologist writer Oliver Sacks, the painter turned to his leaden world with a vengeance that made him paint with a range of tonalities of grey. For years, the designer had an all-white repertoire and black was his color palette for the first time.
Photo:FDCI
The collection aimed to collapse everything the designer has done so far, including challenging the privilege of the front seat where he put mesh screens that would project the models as they walked down the runway.
Also Read: AIFW 2018: Kartik Aryan walks the ramp for designer Pawan Sachdeva
"Similarly, we have used opulent crafts to showcase a collection in black with 'empathy' as our guiding principle trying to imagine a world of black and white and grey and the richness of it--the sharpness of the contrasts and relying on only these and the story of the colorblind painter interspersed with the narrative of a life in an Indian village--where darkness is equally omnipresent as the daylight, we are hoping to bring a disruption recognizing it as a vital force for relevance, experimentation and a narrative tool for challenging status quo," Chauhan said.
His showstoppers were nine bearded men between 40 and 65 years of age, including a photographer and farmer and a retired civil servant. This was a subversion technique used to challenge the notions of beauty and aging, and also a novel way of closing the show with a non-conformist stance on the stereotypes of beauty.
Also Read: Bipasha Basu spills grace at the AIFW ramp
The Amazon India Fashion Week has done away with a grand finale and the showcase of Indian fashion only spans four days this time. But the trend stories in view of the fact that India still doesn't have a fashion forecasting agency were quite evident in the use of monochromes, embroidery and frills and gathers. There was also almost a comeback of menswear with Ashish N Soni and Gauri and Nainika collaborating for Nexa.
The autumn winter 2018 range showcased by Ashish N Soni focused on black and white and was inspired by modern royalty. And Gauri and Nainika kept their romantic and grand signature style in their presentation which featured "dramatic textures, full skirts, enormous 3D hand embroidered flowers, delicately pleated tulle" in a stark black and white collection.
Photo:FDCI
And while black has never been missing from the runway, the treatment was different and many designers played with possibilities of black like Jaipur-based Designer Rohit Kamra's exploration of black and white in his signature style.
"The collection stands as a memory of everything fascinating that has been done in the past," he said.
The effort was to render "vintage futuristic appeal to traditional classics such as Jodhpuris, Hunting Safaris, Indo-westerns, Achkans & Sherwanis paired with Breeches, Polo & Rider Pants" and the designer chose inky blacks, midnight blues and dusky tans and a glint of rustic metallics in his The Modern Maharaja story.
Vaani Kapoor walked the AIFW ramp. Photo:FDCI
And while colors weren't missing, they had been used to complement black and white with their vibrancy.
With black staging a comeback in the most aggressive and interesting way, fashion became a space where negatives were challenged and as Hawking said once that light can in fact escape singularity's edge, there was once again a hope that fashion can escape its own prison and become more relevant with its message. And what better way to bid an adieu to a person who demystified black holes than to make black the most beautiful on the runway.