Wild innocence best described Aneeth Arora’s ‘Cuckoo & Co.’, for us, a Pero offering and an FDCI showcase, at Lakme Fashion Week in partnership with FDCI. Undoubtedly the best show of the Week, Aneeth whose marvellous ‘lightness of being’, genius aesthetics and delicate elegance, has been a hallmark of the brand over a decade, laid out a grand ‘feast’ and welcomed everyone to its world of abandon. And, what a happy abandon it was! The models were choreographed as a zany bunch who danced and played around in Aneeth’s playground of fashion. In mashru, silk, cotton and woollen dresses, jackets, shorts and lots of separates. In layers, textures and patterns. Pure joy! Colourful florals, fun headgear and merry music added to the lively mood. “This is our way of showcasing clothing, in a lighthearted way, as opposed to having that serious thing about how one dresses or should dress. The idea is to not have any rules and do what makes you feel comfortable and wear clothes the way you feel happy,” Aneeth later told The Telegraph. She further decoded the making of ‘Cuckoo & Co.’. Excerpts.

The theme: It started with a very small inspiration which were these tie prints. I came across them by fluke. There was a book lying on my table and I was flipping through it and I saw these small floral patterns which when I read about it, it said that these were tie patterns which were in trend in the 1930s. That made me a little curious about the era and I started reading about the 1930s. When I read about it, I figured there were a lot of unusual things happening at that time. I also came across an article which said the era was called ‘cuckoo’. Whether it was science, arts or fashion, people were experimenting a lot. Women were dressing as men and there were inventions in physics. So, there was a lot happening in that era which went against what normal would be. The only reason I was reading about it was because I was intrigued by those tie prints and we took it as an inspiration and started making our collection, rendering them in mixed media and using them in various sizes. Eventually when it came down to presenting it to everyone, we decided to go with ‘Cuckoo & Co.’ because that is what we came across when I was researching and we tried to portray in the way we did our styling, in the way we superimposed our patterns and in the way we created the set for the show. Pero is all about childhood memories and we found a connection with The Mad Hatter (from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll).

The set: It was a huge heart-shaped dining table because we resonate with the heart in most of our work and we were celebrating the octagonal shape of the hall, where we wanted the models to walk. There is always this nostalgia about what we do. We wanted to serve all the adults a little bit of their childhood. So, at the The Mad Hatter’s party, we served toys to them (t2 left with couple of adorable toy ducks!). It was almost like we wanted them to become kids again and it was an attempt to tell people that there is a child in all of us and we should keep it alive.

The choreography: The idea was it was a party with a lot of mad people (laughs) who are interacting with each other. Also, the idea of having everyone seated when people walked in was so that people also felt a part of that party. That’s why all our models were out and seated on a table. All the transitions in the show were planned in a way so that they were seamless, so that nobody feels that it’s the end of one thing and the starting of the other. One thing leads to another and it ends on a crescendo.

The musicians: We’ve been collaborating with them for at least four-five years now, maybe more. We have very specific themes for our presentations. What we have realised with this bunch of musicians is that they have always delivered within the brief and added value to it with their own experience and skill. In this case also all I did was I told them about the theme and we spoke about the quotes that they have used in Alice in Wonderland, but then I also sent them a bagful of toys and said that I wanted to use noise from these toys to become the music. It’s almost like people jamming on a table start using plates and spoons or anything they have around. Of course we had skilled musicians who were experts playing the piano, saxophone and cello. They were placed at the centre of the table and it was like an evening where there is music playing in the background, but then there are a bunch of crazy musicians who are playing along what is happening at the dinner party.

The collection: Predominantly we were working with those tie patterns and because we were literally going with the theme ‘cuckoo’, the styling was a lot of pattern on pattern, stripes with checks and checks with florals and that mix of textile is very signature which we do. This time, we did not play it simple. We went overboard with mixing patterns and colours. There was also a comeback of ties, which I felt people have stopped wearing. We incorporated toys in the headgear.
The silhouettes were classic, but put together in a way that it looked over the top. Jackets were draped instead of being worn, like a skirt. We have experimented with the ways of wearing the same clothes.

The accessories: The hats were a collaboration with an Italian hat-making company and also the socks and shoes were a collaboration. We covered the shoes with crochet. Of course ties became a part of styling. Apart from that, we had little pompom fanny packs and backpacks. We used pompoms detailing as embellishments too.

The response: I think people have received it as a refreshing (show). We defied the laws of how fashion shows happen... that models have to be serious and have to be a certain way.... There was no certain criteria. People had fun and to an extent where it didn’t feel like a fashion show. The idea was to show clothes to people which I think they managed to see.

Pictures: Sandip Das and LFW X FDCI