M.I.A'S KENZO MUSICAL HOTNESS AND HINDU GODDESSES

So I was trying to find you some sneak previews from Lakme Fashion Week, one of India's biggest fashion events, that kicks off next week, but the folks over at LFW aren't sharing much in the way of preview images (though there is this slightly surreal blog you can have a look at). Then, while meandering through the rabbit hole that is the internet, I came across Kenzo's show at Paris Fashion Week, and stumbled on both this eye-popping set of images of singer M.I.A from French magazine Jalouse and the 8-minute 'Matangi Mixtape' she made for Kenzo's runway show. The music mix (click here to listen, trust me, you'll love it) is a taster of her forthcoming album 'Matangi' out this April. 'Matangi', by the way, is a kickass hindu goddess who is an avatar of Saraswati, the goddess of music and learning (geeky Indian kids pray to her before going to school; having said that, I was a geeky Indian kid too but the only altar I ever prayed at was my stack of Phantom comic books).

Photo credit: Jalouse, photographer Romain Gavras

Sri-Lankan born M.I.A's fashion sense is as genuine an East-West fusion as her music (Matangi is a blood-pumping mash-up of tribal thumping, bass bumping, sanskrit vocalising, which I'm planning to play at top volume to get me going in the morning). Like her, it's bold, but even if her music or clothes aren't your thing, it works because it's a fairly unapologetic and chaotic mix. There's no treading lightly to try and find harmony; instead, it's the discordance, the slightly jaggedness of it all that works.
 

Photo credit: Jalouse, photographer Romain Gavras

Photo credit: Jalouse, photographer Romain Gavras

Matangi, by Rajiv Lochan

SABYASACHI MUMBAI STORE

Most women squeal a little when they enter fashion designer Sabyasachi's store in South Mumbai. First, there's probably the delirium at actually finding the store since it's tucked away on a dusty Mumbai side street - a typically Indian 'you have to know it's there' location. Every time I go in there though, it's not the gorgeous clothes that set my heart racing (and believe me, his stuff is so beautiful you'd sell your grandmother to buy it) but the interior design of the store. Check. it. out.

A lot of the stuff is for sale, making it a happy double whammo for your wallet.

Here's the man himself, Sabyasachi Mukherjee, with actress Rani Mukherji, a la Frida Kahlo, in his store for a Vogue shoot.

Photo credit: Vogue India

This is one of his 2011 Frida Kahlo-esque creations.

If you clicked on the link to Sabyasachi's name, you might see that the website is still under construction. If it looks like anything from these mood boards below by advertising firm Grinning Tree, it is going to be as hot as his store.

  

'NOR BLACK NOR WHITE' SPRING SALE

Ooh I do like a good bargain. Kooky fashion house NorBlack NorWhite have a spring sale on so scoot on over to their online shop right now to snap them up. Some of the super hawt stuff has sold out already, but these pretties below are still in stock. The thing I love most about their stuff is that they're a little mad but very wearable - I have no time for fashion lines that make anyone over 30 look like they've escaped a loony bin.

Green jumpsuit on sale for US$120, was US$240

Orange pantaloons US$160, was US$260

US$80, not technically on sale, but so pretty who cares?

Kimono, US$185

MY BIG FAT INDIAN WEDDING

Things may get a little bridal on this blog as I'm getting married in July (squeal!). Don't worry, I don't have the bridezilla gene. If I have any virtues, it's that even in extreme pressure, my heart rate rarely goes over 65 (which came in handy when I was a news editor). The other thing is that I can't bring myself to fret over flowers or invitations, or worry about which guests need to be seated far away from another. If grown adults want to act like gimps at family reunions, that's their business as far as I'm concerned. Luckily as it's a small affair of about 100 people (ok, so the title of this post was slightly deceiving, but hey, you need a good headline to hook people in dont'cha?) everyone pretty much knows and loves everyone else.

As I write this, I'm slightly mopey about the fact that just a couple of days ago, I was in Bombay with my sister at the tail end of a chaotic holiday to shop for my wedding dress, and go to a cousin's wedding in Bangalore. A week later, and I've got my dress and matching jewellery tucked up at home. What's more, I snagged a boatload of jaw-droppingly gorgeous silk fabric from Crawford Market in South Mumbai to decorate my venue with. A word on Crawford Market - don't even dream about setting foot near it unless you have the stamina of an ox, and enough patience to withstand people waving all manner of crap in your face in the hope that you'll buy the towels/calendars/underwear/rattles/guitars they are selling. Once you've made it through, and trust me, you'll feel like you've broken into Mordor, there are endless stalls selling fabric so pretty and so ridiculously cheap (about $3 a metre), you'll go nuts. Well we did, anyway, and it took several vodka cocktails to recover. My cousin's wedding in Bangalore, on the other hand, really WAS a big fat Indian wedding, and I'll write about that asap as my brain is still processing the five day shindig with 5000 guests.

I'll post pics of all these goodies very soon, but for now, they're still sitting in Bangalore waiting for my Dad to cart them back for me. In the meantime, feast your eyeballs on the stuff by a sweet little online company called Zarbaft sold only through their Facebook site. It's got a lovely vintage 1970s vibe, very Zeenat Aman, and pretty reasonably priced too.

Zeenat, in all her 1970s glory.

Love this shade of green, plus the style hides batwings (ie, flubby triceps) too; Image: Zarbaft

Price on enquiry at Zarbaft

Rs 40,000 or about UK£500; Zarbaft

ALL THAT GLITTERS: EIKO ISHIOKA

This has been a month of catching up on movies I didn't have time to see in the cinema, and this week was a Snow White extravaganza of back-to-back Mirror Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman. Not even the luscious Chris Hemsworth (of Thor fame) could save Snow White and the Huntsman for me, but Mirror Mirror on the other hand, was genius.

Throughout,  the uber-bling costumes and set design gave me the sneaky suspicion I was watching a Hollywood take on a Bollywood film, and the film just let rip at the end with a mad Bollywood-styled musical number sung by Snow White herself (played by Lily Collins, daughter of Phil). The lush set design is the work of Eiko Ishioka, a Japanese designer, who has collaborated with Mirror Mirror director Indian-American Tarsem Singh, on visually delicious films like The Cell.

What I love about the Mirror Mirror set design is that the Indian detail is a subtle influence, like the red peacock dress that Julia Roberts wears, and, as my sister's eagle eye spotted, the peacock feather detailing on the palace wall.
























Ishioka herself died earlier this year, just before Mirror Mirror was released, but what a legacy she's left behind.

Here's J-Lo in the surreally genius The Cell:

 Bram Stoker's Dracula                                           Grace Jones

BOLLYWOOD KITSCH

The riotous colours of Bollywood are inherently kitsch, but mixing the two requires serious skillz. The mad colours, dazzling sequins, and general over-the-topness of Indian movies mean that if you get it wrong, the results will be so heinously tacky that you'll want to chuck it on the bonfire faster than you can scream "my eyes! my eyes!".

Item Number is a label that definitely gets it right, and though I only own a little clutch bag so far, I covet their entire range of accessories including clutch and tote bags, cushion covers, mugs, and notebooks. They've just brought out this new cotton and faux leather cummerband that would look pretty kickass on a white shirt.

Check out these babies...

Oscar-winning dialogue right here. On the left, the angry dude's saying "Bitch! Bastard! I'm going to drink your blood!!! She replies, "Listen, today don't drink blood, drink tea!" Make sense? It doesn't have to! It's Bollywood!

This is my one. Snazzy no? She lives on my bedroom shelf.

This smouldering lady is Rekha, legendary Bollywood goddess

HAPPY MONDAY!

Meditate, levitate, animate. Brilliant advice for a grey Monday morning (Hello London, this is summer? really?). I spotted this painting over on Prash's blog and almost want to use it as a happy little screensaver. Prash's art is always gorgeously intricate yet never overwhelming - there's something super-calming about his style. He sketches extensively throughout his travels around the world, stopping here and there to illustrate children's books or design murals for hippy dippy restaurants in Goa.

PRASH'S MURAL AT 'BAGGIES' AT BETALBATIM, GOA

"YUP, I MADE THIS". PRASH OUTSIDE 'BAGGIES'.

Prash also exhibits at a brilliant Bangalore store called the Plantation House (I'll post more on that lovely fashion/art/homeware store soon), and these images are from a previous exhibition called The Blue Matchbox.

SO FAKE

Bonkers Indian fashion label Sofake (created by Mumbai-based chicks Sukriti Grover and Sapna Bhavnani) showed a style during Lakme Fashion Week last month called Kathorian - which stamps the mask-like make up of a traditional Indian dance called Kathakali with the frou-frou frills and extravagant shapes of the Victorian era (I love the mish-mash of styles so much I've used a tiny snapshot in this blog's logo). Their runway stuff may be a little hard to wear when you pop to the shops for a pint of milk, but the Spring/Summer 2012 collection is black-and-white magic. 

And by a happy coinkidink, Kiran, who models the Spring/Summer stuff below, also did a brilliant job of dyeing my hair deep purple last year, as she works in Bhavnani's fab Mumbai hair salon called Mad or Wot.

ON TIME. ISH.

Indians are geniuses at many things but being on time really isn't one of them. I could have read War and Peace a hundred times over in the time I've spent waiting for my brethren who run on what creative studio Hyphen calls Indian Stretchable Time. 

The ish watch with its off-kilter numbers brilliantly pokes fun at Indians' perennial lateness. Hyphen may only be a year old, and this is its first baby, but if co-founder and former advertising guru Prasanna Sankhe keeps inventing products like this, I can't wait to see what's next. Will the watch help anyone be on time for a change? We'll have to wait and see I guess.   

PEOPLE POWER

WETHEPPL is the brainchild of a groovy group of Mumbai hipsters. They're sort of like a bunch of mad, creative scientists who experiment with ideas on fashion, music, and poetry, amongst other things. And their latest spin on Indian textiles is making me hyperventilate with its gorgeousness. First up, check out this buttery soft shirt called the 'Camiz'. 

It mixes up the group's "favourite elements of the lightest shirt, kurta, and sweatshirt." Depending on the style you want to rock, you could be The Doctor, the Architect, the Writer, the Professor, the Engineer, the Ninja - or if you want to work the dead celeb vibe, go for Che Guevara or Michael Jackson. 

That was just a taster. Now, one of WETHEPPL's fashion lines NorBlack NorWhite has just launched its spring line full of these heart-stopping pretties. So far, they've only been stocking their goodies in India, Japan and Canada, but world domination probably isn't too far away. 

Ok this next one's cheating because it was from Autumn-Winter 2011, but it's too lush to leave out. 

SUPER-WEARABLE. OK, MINUS THE GOLD FACEPLATE.

MASABA MASALA

Tell me this pic doesn't make you want to slap a crazy circus hat on your pretty little head? Ok, I might be alone in wanting to parade around with a tutti-frutti cone on my noggin, but this designer chick, Masaba, twists Indian clothes into some mad hot shapes.

Anyone who can reinvent the sari (a design classic if there ever was one) is a freaking genius in my book. She's got Mumbai fashion types all hot and sweaty over her designs, and too right - check out more of her stuff below. 

(psst: a little red-hot gossip - she's also the daughter of West Indian cricketing superstar Viv Richards. If you don't know who he is, educate yourself, fools!)