Duchess of elegance

As the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge spend their first day in India, fashion circles are abuzz with the Duchess’ style choices.

Ever since the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William and Kate Middleton, have landed on Indian turf, fashion circles have been abuzz about the lady’s elegant style choices. Beginning with a chic Alexander McQueen ensemble with paisley prints and peplum detailing, the Duchess went on to sport a relaxed and colourful Anita Dongre dress from the designer’s recent ‘Love Notes’ collection as she paid a visit to Oval Maidan in Mumbai to meet children from Indian charities, finishing the day off with a cobalt blue style crescendo in a beautiful, intricately embroidered full-length gown by British designer Jenny Packham. Desi designers and stylists give us their take.

“I loved all three dresses!” exclaims designer Urvashi Kaur and says of the dress the Duchess arrived in, “The Alexander McQueen outfit looked like she had really thought it through — the colour, the paisley prints and the peplum looked great on her.”

I also thought it was a more playful choice of attire as compared to what she usually wears back home in England. It was nice to see her enjoying colours, silhouettes and prints a little more here. I also thought she was styled very well, very elegantly. It’s tough to fault her, actually, because she’s a very safe dresser in general, but there is something deliberately understated about her that suits her very much.” Celebrity stylist Rishi Raj and designers Anupama Dayal and Nida Mahmood beg to differ, however. While Anupama avers that the red Alexander McQueen number wasn’t really Kate’s style and she would’ve preferred a minimalist Indian garment instead, Nida feels that the silhouette was the real problem. “As pretty as it looked on her, the ensemble was a bit too Thai for me. I would have preferred her in something more modern and generic because the Thai silhouette is a bit out of place within an Indian context,” she says.

The second dress the Duchess chose to don, however, has been quite the winner with a majority of design and style moguls across the world. Rishi Raj, who feels that the choice of this particular Anita Dongre dress served to make monarchy more relatable and accessible, affirms, “I totally loved Kate’s choice of the mint and berry-hued Mughal-inspired tunic dress. It was quite appropriate for the occasion and made her look very elegant for the cricket match. It worked for me on a lot of levels and she happily embraced Indian motifs too. The dress was so comfortable and breezy that it made her look like the perfect tourist with a penchant for fashion!” Urvashi Kaur agrees and adds, “It was very much in the vibe, very casual and had this really bohemian touch to it. Kate looked extremely charming and down-to-earth in it, which I personally found very appealing. I thought it suited the occasion too, although it wasn’t exactly sporty but from a charity aspect I thought she did good justice to it. She also seemed very comfortable in it and with the weather and everything, the silhouette, the fabric as well as the colours were very apt.”

Finally, the cobalt blue evening gown by the Duchess’s favourite British designer, Jenny Packham, drew a fairly mixed bag of reactions, much like the McQueen ensemble. “I’m not so sure about the blue gown, to be honest,” Anupama says and adds, “See, she is a great model for any garment so it’s hard to find fault in how she looks because there’s really nothing that she doesn’t do justice too. She always looks fairly flawless. But I just felt that while some thought had gone into picking the Anita Dongre dress, I would’ve liked her to pick out an Indian designer for the evening gala too. It would have added another dimension to her look. And by itself, the Jenny Packham gown wasn’t very interesting either.” Rishi Raj agrees and adds, “I was hoping that she would wear something a little more fitted and glamorous. This looked like a fairly regular red carpet appearance and she looked older than she really is too.” Nida disagrees, however, and feels that the bright blue gown added to the Duchess’s grace and charm.

“The fact that she kept the sensibility of Indian aesthetics in mind and chose to wear a brightly coloured gown while in India instead of the typically grey, white or black gowns that they usually wear in Britain is something that I really admired about her. The gown was simple yet very stylish, very modern and perfect for the occasion,” she concludes.