By Ka Yee Chan
Bibhu Mohapatra’s F/W 2014 was inspired by Tibet’s vast landscapes. Mohapatra came about this inspiration as he was looking at the landscapes’ photographs by Manoj Jadhav. Also, his acupuncturist had recently returned from a trip to Mongolia and Tibet. There Mohapatra was inspired by things and people around him. He transformed the traditional striped Tibetan garment into a digital print, which is used thoroughly in the collection.
As a clever commercial designer, Mohapatra used information and references to build his collections. He got his inspirations from friends, and got his silhouettes from past records of bestselling pieces.
Mohapatra played with stripe prints, crisscrossed scarves, and triangular shapes. Stripe prints are either presented as stripes of different colors or in gradients. The positions of stripes added movement to the garments. Putting contrast materials against each other also created a striped effect, such as putting a beaded stripe against a non-beaded stripe, or a sheer stripe against an un-sheer stripe.
Crisscrossed scarf styling is all over the collection. There is a fur scarf crisscrossed at the neck styled with a belt at the waist, and paired with a stripe print dress. Scarves played an important role in the collection, and were not only an accessory.
Triangular shapes are visible throughout the collection. There are triangle shaped openings in gowns, triangle sheer pieces in dresses, and seam positions that create triangular negatives.
The collection has some safe bestseller pieces, but also surprises with its styling and prints. The show beautifully ended with the two stripe gradient print gowns.
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