Chaos meets order

Wild and weary, the human soul is not meant to be caged. In its original form, it is free from the shackles of confusion. It does not believe in attachment. Nor does it believe in animosity. It roams the world free, till the day it encounters the unconquered. The woes and the worries begin an unparalleled dance off with the mind. And therein lies the feat. A mind that can vanquish a thousand strikes from the negative is stronger than a mind that does not even attempt.

Allegorical to Alice in Wonderland, we find that the mind drifts off to a mythical corner every time it is encountered by the unknown. The mind is a strange place. We begin to seek comfort in every little nook from the known when placed in this modern day dilemma. The modern day Jabberwocky poses a threat to the free willed mind as we know it. The exaggerated sense of self importance or paranoia as it is more commonly known begins to infiltrate the labyrinth that is the human mind. 

FTLOFAOT in collaboration with Raju Raman Photography with N Barr Make up and hair puts forth this mini editorial where Raju creates magic behind the lens and with this woodland set created by him. Neilly uses her magic brushes to do justice to each look in terms of make up and hair. Styling and modelled by, yours truly. Full credits below.

Photography and set by: Raju Raman Photography Find him on instagram.
Make up and hair by: N Barr Makeup. Find her on instagram.
Styled and modelled by: Shreya Kalra

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FTLOFAOTxBhumika Grover

When you first step into Bhumika Grover's design studio, the first thing that catches your eye is the racks full of absolutely stunning Indian wear in the most vivid colours. But that was fairly obvious. Bhumika Grover's strength lies in recreating classics. But for those of you keen on customising your style to glory, she has some aces up her sleeve. For instance, a cooler option that a label as exciting and dynamic as hers gives you is a cape blouse with long front panels over a lehenga, as opposed to a run of the mill choli for your lehenga. The handiwork on each garment, be it a spray of sequins or zardozi speaks of the endless days and nights of insomnia or sleep deprivation that all of us really attempting to think out of the box suffer from. Her line of clothing goes from anarkalis, shararas, lehengas in the traditional sense to lehenga skirts with crop tops with a more resort feel about them. 

Bhumika's studio is located in the labyrinth that is Shahpur Jat in New Delhi and she also stocks at Exclusively.Com for all you e-shopping junkies.

I figured that an ode from one creative to another should be one where creativity is of paramount importance and that drove me to conceptualising a warrior bride look with her heavily embroidered lehenga with a gold mirror work jacket blouse. It helps that my photographer has a knack for unearthing locations that wouldn't normally be found on google maps! I added some face art and decided to forego the traditional polki and kundan jewellery for a more back-to-the-roots, 'mogra' and 'genda' headgear. The concept of the look was a fierce, determined bride who obviously doesn't shy away from embracing her idiosyncrasies.

All of you itching to just get your hands on the next Bhumika Grover garment, find her showcasing at Bridal Asia, this 17-19 October, 2015. 

Find her on the following portals:

Facebook

Instagram

Photography courtesy of Jagrati Marwaha, more of whose work you can also find on winterynights.tumblr.com and jagrati-marwaha.tumblr.com

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Spaces: Home & Beyond at AIFW

Spaces Home & Beyond sums up everything there is to know about this illustrious home wellness brand. Coming from the house of Welspun, it comes as little or no surprise that everything about the products coming out of Spaces is undeniably stellar. As a part of the POPxo blogger network, I had the good fortune of really letting my hair down at the Spaces Lounge at the ongoing Amazon India Fashion Week. The space transcends you right back to your own happy place (no pun intended). The little installations to display pieces of linen, swatches of fabric, towels etc added to creating the perfect look for people to stop by during a very hectic fashion week and just browse through their most interesting products. Two things made this a very very exciting time to be at the Spaces Lounge:
1) The Anamika Khanna show was brought to you by Spaces- Home & Beyond.
2) The brand ambassador Parineeti Chopra dropped for just a casual tete-a-tete with us at the Lounge. Just kidding, of course. But she was there for us to ogle at and fawn over.
They had also set up a mini kiosk inside the main area where you could DIY a turban of your choice for yourself. All brought to you by Spaces. Because really it is all about #FindingYourSpace.

Pictures courtesy: Namit of Valley of Chic
The Anamika Khanna by Spaces show was every Ready To Wear lover's dream. Relaxed and sporty on the silhouettes and interesting on the technique quotient, I have my heart set on each pre-draped half saree and kaftan that she showed. The colour palette went from shades of white and black to blues and finally some pops of mustard and red to end the show. The indigo dyeing technique and shibori made for some exceptionally interesting pieces apart from the interesting prints and hints of classic Anamika metallic embellishments on thread embroidery that we saw. Sporty luxe is here to stay and we dare say that that is one trend we cannot get enough of. Incidentally, as seen here I paired my boxy COS dress with a pair of terribly Indian earrings and all white sneakers too.
Some of my most favourite looks from the Anamika Khanna show:

Find Spaces on the following social media portals:
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram x

FTLOFAOTx CORD

We are what we seek from the world. We are a sum total of our journeys and experiences. We are what we project. And analogously, we are also defined by the sartorial choices we make. There is a lot of subtext to what Miranda Priestly tells Andy Sachs in Devil Wears Prada, if you really think about it. She tells her that the 'cerulean' blue lumpy sweater that she wears is actually not exempting her from the fashion industry, au contraire the sweater was chosen for her by the billion dollar fashion industry after it trickled down from the cerulean blue gowns that Oscar de la Renta did for the runway. The subtext that we tend to not see is that every choice we make represents more than just our conscious decision to wear something. 

This label made me think on this tangent and to sit and really wonder why we choose to wear what we do. CORD designs represents a journey that traverses the spheres of the old and the new. On the venn diagram, CORD is the common area between the vintage and the modern. The art of design as discovered and the new modern technology that is working with it in tandem. The reason I feel a strong connect with the ideologies of CORD is because it is a thinking woman/man's label. Each bag handcrafted with the finest leather tells a tale of modern day aesthetics combined with the minimal craft of the past. It lends you a perspective that is not yours and yet entirely customised to match your story. 

The constellation backpack that you see me carry here is a modern day representation of the starry-eyed girl. For all the dream picking and wool gathering, this backpack shall see me through it all. 

Find the splendid range of bags from CORD on their page here and on Instagram.

Wearing:
Top: C/O Stalk Buy Love
Jeans: Guess
Sneakers: Adidas Super star
Arm party: Forever 21
Bag: C/O CORD

Photography by: Saumya Gupta. Find her on Behance.

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