Consciously Colour Coded

Dresses become statement-making outfits when they are manufactured using new age and unconventional in-trend colours, styling techniques, fabrics and designs.

- Chitra Balasubramaniam

Fashion is so transient and fleeting that it has become an ever-evolving confluence of factors. The international apparel industry mostly runs on experimentation with colours and patterns every season. The right colour, the right print, the right-sized checkers—each aspect helps create new apparels. In India, colours have never been considered so important until recent times when a revolutionary development helped pinpoint in-season colours.

INDIAN APPEAL TO INTERNATIONAL SHADES

As the saying goes change is always constant. So are trends. The Indian market has not been quite conscious on trending shades and its ambivalence has led to people wearing whatever shade they have preferred. Pastels are the more sought after colours during summers. Soft shades of cream, yellow, peach, pale pinks and deeper tones of lilac, pink, blue, and green are the most preferred colours. Winters include deeper, darker shades of red, burgundy, purple and other similar shades.

However, what does come as a surprise is that over the last few years, attempts have been made to predict colour trends for the Indian apparel market based on international colour trends. This has led the apparel market to make alterations in trends so as to better suit colour conscious Indians, who prefer to buy garments better suited to their skin tone and texture. While these shades may not be a copy of internationally trending colours, this trend has helped Indian apparel brands and designers to sell their products overseas and strike a trendy and aesthetic balance for the dusky-skinned. The same is observed in the case of international brands that are trying to build a market for their off-beat colour combinations. This has helped the everyday Indian grow comfortable in experimenting with kitschier colours.