What's hot: Catwalk trends from India's top designers

10 top fashion designers, 6 cities. A look at the 9th edition of the Seagram’s Blenders Pride Fashion Tour.

The Blenders Pride Fashion Tour 2013, which commenced in Chandigarh September 28, took 10 of India’s top fashion designers across six cities.

After setting ramps on fire in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Gurgaon, the tour ended in Mumbai November 24.

Join us on a recap of the sartorial journey.

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JJ Valaya’s collection wove Spanish influences into his Indian sensibilities in the collection titled Maharaja of Madrid.

“I am a lost royal. I’m sure I was one in my last birth,” the designer explains his vision. “Thus this whole streak of monarchy never leaves my collections. My current line is a story of an Indian Maharaja who goes to Spain and, the little things he picks up from his journey is what comes together in this collection.”

A decade of fashion that never gets old is the Roaring 20s. It was the decade when the world emerged from the shadow of World War I and fashion entered the modern era. And Neeta Lulla brought it back to the ramp with all the coquettishness of the past and the flair of the present.

Drawing inspiration from the sari and vintage cuts of the 1920s, it channeled her inner Daisy Buchanan.

This Vikram Phadnis collection was a diffusion line with no heavy bridals. Jalabias, lehengas, kalidars with capes and kotis, patialas with tight fitted kurtis celebrated the chic and glamorous desi.

I don’t like Schubert’s music or Schumann’s,
I’m one of those humans,
Who only goes in for Berlin and Vincent Youmans,
So whenever some musical man I meet
I always murmur — tout suite:
If you want to thrill me and drill me for your crew,
then sing me a melody that’s red hot and blue

— Cole Porter

Inspired by a tribute to Cole Porter’s masterpiece Red Hot and Blue, Wendell Rodricks titled his collection Red, Haute and Blue.

Hot tunes — no Stravinsky Schubert or Schumann — mixed with colours that popped. He worked his usual minimalistic magic with neons, peacock blue, and hot pinks.

The splendor and characteristic clandestinety of the medieval ages made a comeback in the Rocky Star collection. The enigma and secrecy of the dark holds a certain allure. And this subtle affluence came forward through the beadwork and the sequins, through the exaggerated textures and layers of fabric. Rocky’s clothes are vintage in their own way. They embody a blend of old eras and new times. The colour black is reborn in every possible way, such that each contour, shade, hue and texture of it creates a genesis. This is an out and out collection with a lot of shine. The extravagance and gorgeous delineations of femininity that reflect the seduction of the Middle Ages stepped out of the shadows and presented a new hold on style.

Rocky Star this season delineates the dramatic splendor of mystery. The mystery of dark, unfolds itself in subtle affluence, amalgamated in the intricacies of exaggerated textures and layers. Keeping the signature "Black" aligned, the collection renovates the genesis of color black, recreating the aura of dark medieval age of Fashion which is all about lavishness, seduction, gorgeous contours of femininity.

Suneet Varma dug deep into nostalgia and pulled out the rustle of anarkalis and the whisper of chiffon. “The collection,” he says, “is based upon love of lyrics and poetry — words that repertoire, soothe and enrich the soul. Taking inspiration from poetry that my mother has written, I am dwelling into something nostalgic and tender as the night.”

We first saw Tarun Tahiliani recreate the enigma that is the Kumbh Mela at the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week Autumn/Winter in March.

Saffrons, reds, browns and golds burst onto the stage in a brilliant show — what he called ‘a spectacle of effortless originality.’

Pankaj & Nidhi find inspiration in the swirling petals of the rose and all that it stands for — a thing of beauty, a symbol of love.

In their collection titled Roses are Blue, staying true to the name, they interpret the eternal flower in new tones.

Gaviin Miguel celebrated women and their strength with his collection Warriors of Heaven on Earth.

“I see women as strong characters,” Miguel says. “Since childhood; through my mother, my friends and now my wife, I have experienced this hidden power that women possess.”

His interpretation spilled out in gold, silver, rust, pewter, champagne, military shades, deep wines and deeper blues. 

If futuristic is the look you like, then designer duo Falguni and Shane Peacock’s Spring-Summer 2014 line, Robotic Chic, could be your go-to collection. Their range stretches from evening wear to red carpet clothing.