I Wear: Elephants = Fashion + Fusion

My February began in a flurry of closet confusion. I had happily RSVPed to Kiran Manral’s book/beauty event for ‘The Reluctant Detective‘ at Biguine, Bandra. I had a long meeting coming up, to plan my own event highlight of the month. And in the evening, I was due across town for The Bombay Store’s ‘India Haat‘. What to wear to such diverse settings? My wardrobe agonizing would’ve done Kay Mehra (‘The Reluctant Detective‘s protagonist) proud. Elephants came to my rescue. What else says fusion better?

It wasn’t a cool day so that put paid to any plans of turquoise double-breasted jackets, funky nylon leggings or oversized sweaters. I finally went along with a mix of both events – a slinky top that I’d normally wear to a party and a block-printed cotton skirt that I usually build into ‘ethnic’ looks.

My first thought was to theme my look with camels (in honour of the Rajasthan focus of India Haat) but I couldn’t find anything in my wardrobe. I spent the briefest of moments wondering about other animal iconography from the desert state and settled on elephants instead. (Imagine my surprise when I discovered India Haat had more elephants than camels!).

Here are all the textures & colours that I wore:

The top is a plain black wrap with texturing in the form of sheer fabric stripes.The skirt is an ankle-length, flowy wraparound in white with black blockprints of elephants and flowers. I knotted a silk scarf with black & white bandhini prints, on my handbag.

The look still felt too stark for a colourful theme like Rajasthan so I added interest with these accessories:

The earrings are tiny silver studs shaped like elephants. The silver pendant depicts an elephant too and is strung on a thin silver chain. The ring and bangle are both green & red wood (matching the pendant and bag). With these, I didn’t need much more make-up than a swish of eyepencil and a touch of red-brown lipstick.

I Wear:

• Black & sheer wrap top: Lokhandwala market
• Black & white wraparound cotton skirt: Lokhandwala market
• Black leather boots: Shop next to KFC, Linking Road, Bandra
• Silver elephant stud earrings: Cottage Emporium, Delhi
• Silver elephant pendant: FabIndia
• Silver chain: Local silver shop
• Green & red square wooden ring: FabIndia
• Green wooden bangle: FabIndia
• Red handbag: Baggit
• Steel watch: Casio