Here’s a fashion challenge for you: Try draping a sari. Go ahead. Try your hardest. See if you can make the draping stick without using pins. Spend all the time you like on this trying. More than likely you will fail.
Traditional garb often gets written off as somehow “naive.” But sari-draping is a real art. There’s also the matter of the choli, the little top that sits under the sari—it must be immaculately tailored and just the right length to wink a bit of skin, but not too much. This season, Carly Cushnie and Michelle Ochs had the very clever idea of paying homage to the sari by, essentially, using Western dressmaking methods as a cheat—they conjured the garment’s drape and asymmetry by sewing on a bit of draped material here, or tying scarf-like lengths of fabric off to one side. Pencil-shaped dresses with silk draped off one shoulder, and choli-esque fitted material placed underneath, paid the plainest tribute to the sari; elsewhere, a tailored top with a wavy hem or an asymmetric jumpsuit with a deconstructed blazer top de-literalized the reference, almost to the vanishing point.
Cushnie and Ochs also riffed on India via their colors: The palette of ochre and brackish green and orchid steered clear of Indian fashion’s signature of bright yellows and pinks, suggesting the earthier hues of the landscape instead. The designers demonstrated similar understatement in the collection’s textures, the richest of which were found in their burnout satin and velvet, suede and quilted jacquard. Eschewing embellishment, they let the materials do the talking instead. The one exception to that rule was in a cable-knit embroidery, redolent at once of fisherman’s sweaters and Indian seed embroidery. (It’s a technique Ochs and Cushnie should consider evolving in future collections, to different effect.) The material richness here served to elevate the collection, as did its sense of circumspection: Though there were some skin-baring looks, for the most part these clothes erred on the decorous side. They seemed easy to wear—no lessons in the art of sari-draping required.
