L-atitude Picks | Thakoon RTW Spring 2012

At Thakoon?s SS2012 show, Technicolor characters in a Western-themed Bollywood film came to life on the runway. Sporting rococo touches that romanticized the vividly hued prints of Indian film and softened the hard-wearing cowboy-inspired accents, the looks were surprisingly wearable takes on indulgently imaginative creations.

At Thakoon?s SS2012 show, Technicolor characters in a Western-themed Bollywood film came to life on the runway. Sporting rococo touches that romanticized the vividly hued prints of Indian film and softened the hard-wearing cowboy-inspired accents, the looks were surprisingly wearable takes on indulgently imaginative creations.

 

 

Thakoon deconstructed the bandana down to its bare essential, a powerful little swirl of a print. The designer?s paisley journey took him to India, where the typically assumed-to-be-Western-only pattern is reinterpreted in the most decadent of palettes ? gold, saffron, turquoise. What happened next was a fusion that required a delicate balance Thakoon seems to have achieved: Western silhouettes nodding to the paisley?s bandana origins, a palette and feminine finish paying homage to opulent Indian culture.

 

 

To top off the concoction, Thakoon wove in a reference to his FW2011 show with rococo flourishes ? the extra curl on a magnified paisley, the added swirl on a pastel hairdo. Outfits that can easily be taken to the streets for everyday use were presented with these kitschy touches as if they were being wrapped up with a shiny bow, making them seem all the more delicious. As for each look in and of itself, our protagonist, paisley, was seen both as a print and as a zoomed-in embellishment.

 

 

It adorned trapeze dresses that flipped mid-thigh, maxi dresses that flounced in movement, metallic-trimmed skirted jackets and cigarette pants, formerly simple trenches and pop-bright shirt dresses. Thakoon cleansed our palette in between with color-blocked suited looks and more bohemian-minded skirts and dresses that more instantly represented the Indian influence.  The result was refreshingly new yet soaked in all we love about Thakoon: timelessly feminine silhouettes revamped with dramatic detail, saturated hues and fabrics that border on opulent.