Risqué, youthful and sequinned, Manish Malhotra lets us into his world where he leaves behind elaborateness and serenades sass.

By Asmita Aggarwal

He is the undisputed lord of Bollywood dressing, as celebs are often photographed by a frenzy of lensmen waiting outside his posh residence in Mumbai, Manish Malhotra in the last three decades has carved out a niche fan following. But this is not without brickbats as many of his contemporaries still believe he has Bollywood-ised fashion.

His proximity to the sparkling universe of stars has also made him a social media leader, a force to reckon with, so every girl when she aspires to get married hopes to do so in his outfit, after all Kareena to Karisma Kapoor also wear it, thus the human psychology of getting a piece of that starlit pie.

When he launches a line to woo the younger audience, he somewhere loses all the elaborateness that you see in his couture offerings and sticks to a more youthful appeal in “Diffuse”. As a finale designer Manish is known to be the catwalk raja of showstoppers, Ananya Pandey and the dishy Aditya Roy Kapoor, reminded us that good looks are a genetic favour granted to us, the designer on the other hand let us add oodles of shimmer into our staid wardrobes.

Checkerboard dresses, cross and not pant suits, sequinned coats, oversized tunics, sunshine yellow jumpsuits, colour theory was to dazzle, this season maybe to counter the days of darkness that we left behind. Each piece had distinct gold and silver accents, with some had “Sugar Daddy ” and “Gold Digger” text added in for humour. Faux feather capes, PVC boots, tasselled bags, rapper-inspired necklaces, steel trunks converted in mini hand-helds, it was a play of lines, dots, circles, squares serenading geometry.

Candy wrapper inspired pant suits stood out by the dint of their strong hues, while Manish showed us his risqué side by offering sheer bodysuits with sharara flared bottoms as heavy bosoms heaved and leg show was on display. This was combined with off shoulder one shoulder as well as no shoulder dresses that embraced curves, rather tightly.

Some would like to wear a jacket with “M” embroidered all over, androgynous in its treatment, or even the red hearts, flying all over Ananya Pandey’s fitted gown as her mother Bhawna gave her a resounding ovation from the audience.