Husband-wife Indian designer duo Falguni and Shane Peacock created ripples in the international market when they showcased their collections at the London Fashion Week four years ago.
They’ve designed for celebrities such as Britney Spears, Katy Perry and Jennifer Lopez as well as Priyanka Chopra and Bipasha Basu and thus, know what they are doing. They strongly believe that big-budget Bollywood movies play a strong role in setting trends in high-end fashion and costume design.
“Indian cinema and fashion have always gone hand in hand. In every time period, a fashion trend has evolved due to Indian cinema,” said Falguni. “For instance, the ‘70s saw the hippie trend and flower power in Indian cinema.” She feels the industry is very big on high-end fashion.
The duo also participated in the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in Berlin twice. The second time, the show was attended by American singer Ashanti and actor Michelle Williams, both of whom wore their outfits. Falguni and Shane first introduced their label in August 2002.
“We have big-budget movies such as Cocktail, Student of The Year and Race 2 which spent a lot of money on designer wear, bags and shoes,” added Shane. “Every era has created a different fashion statement.” Shane feels that India as a country is very big on Bollywood and as a result, everything seen by actors is picked up by young girls and boys.
Falguni and Shane are inspired by the fusion of Western cuts and Indian embellishments. They feel it has a global appeal. And recently, singer-actor Demi Lovato chose a bold and trendy outfit designed by them. They also styled the entire look of background dancers at Madonna’s Super Bowl performance.
The duo is making waves again with their new project — they designed an underwater themed wedding gown for tattoo artist Kat Von D who got engaged to electronic music artist Joel Zimmerman aka Deadmau5 last year.
“The details of her weddings gown are yet to be finalised. Kat’s design sensibility is very unique. She will never dress like the typical bride,” said Falguni, whose dream is to design for Kristen Stewart, Keira Knighley and Gwyneth Paltrow. “Her wedding theme is underwater so even the outfit will be inspired from the theme in terms of colours and cuts.”
The fashion industry in India has greatly evolved, said Shane. “We see that people in the Indian fashion industry are becoming more aware of international brands and designers. Everyone seems to know the latest fashion trends,” he added. “Our celebrities are constantly spotted in the latest collections of these high-end brands and designer wear. There is an influx of luxury brands, which was actually a rare commodity 10 years ago.”
They also feel that there is a lot of talent in this industry. “There are a lot of designers who are extremely creative. The younger lot has a fresh perspective but it’s not like the newbies are more evolved in terms of creativity,” said Shane. “All designers, be it new, young or old, are constantly evolving in terms of creativity. The day a designer’s creative thoughts become stagnant, his work will stop being sought after.”
Published in The Express Tribune, May 16th, 2013.
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