Gaurav Gupta

Two Of A Kind: Cloud Over The Head

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The recent Oscars presentation showed that there is a market for head covering that’s not a tudung

Left: Gaurav Gupta dress shown at Paris Couture Spring/Summer 2023. Photo: Gaurav Gupta. Right: Tems in Lever Couture. Photo: Getty Images

The red carpet, must trod-on walkway of award shows, has always been a fashion trap. The colour may make those standing on it appear important, but it is, in fact, insidious by nature, ready to ensnare the fashion-clueless star and underscore how foolish they look. In the past, screen idols—and they were—needn’t depend on fashion to the point that their popularity at the award ceremony depended on what they wore. These days, things are, of course, vastly different. So many individuals in the fashion ecosystem are involved. A star cannot simply go to their favourite store and pick what they like. They are expected to make this the opportunity to keep otherwise unoccupied couturiers busy. Or avail themselves as a walking billboard. An what is worn now must shout F.A.S.H.I.O.N. As much is at stake, red carpet newbies try harder, often unaware of what they are really wearing because powerful stylists have more say. As long as you stand out, even if to the detriment of others around you, you have made it. One of them who had us thinking (yes, still) is the singer-songwriter Tems.

Yes, we’re revisiting that dress. Tems, aka Temilade Openiyi, wore a white gown that provided shelter for her head. The partly ruched dress with a thigh-high slit was by the just-over-a-decade-old label, Lever Couture, whose designer is Ukrainian-German, Lessja Verlingieri, known for her over-the-top “hand-sculpted” gowns. What Ms Openiyi wore was part of the label’s spring/summer 2023, revealed last September at the Rakuten Fashion Week in Tokyo. It is similar to the dress—also by Lever Couture—that Cardi B wore on the cover of Essence’s May/June 2022 issue. Ms Verlingieri’s style is hard to define, but she seems to like to manipulate her fabrics by fashioning them directly onto the body’s form. She is partial to extravagant over-the-head extensions, such as the cumulous canopy seen on Tems. Extraneous and distended parts are very much a part of the couture language. But what framed Tems’s head was already seen elsewhere—a continent apart.

In India. But that’s not quite exact enough. To be more precise, Paris, during the couture spring/summer 2023 season. Designer Gaurav Gupta showed for the first time—as a guest member—during the official Haute Couture Week. The collection comprised his signature curvilinear swathes in Indian handloom tissue that swirled around the body and over the head. He, too, called his way with fabric “sculpting”. This dramatic aesthetic was best worn on Aishwarya Rai Bachchan at last year’s Cannes Film Festival in May. The back of that dress that soared skywards was taller than Tems’s head cover. It is not known if the former beauty queen wore the dress at any of the festival’s screening and if she did, if anyone’s view was blocked. Times of India described the Indian actress in the Gaurav Gupta dress as “a phenomenon” while the Delhi-based designer portrayed her as “new-concept Venus” after Botticelli’s famed mid-1480 painting, minus the shell. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s gown was mostly covered by the Indian media. Conversely, Tems’s look went viral. In the end, that’s all that matters.

Two Of Kind: Sculptural Shoulders

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A dress shoulder protruding from the bodily shoulder has been a kind of signature of the Indian designer Gaurav Gupta… until now

GG vs CC: Which came first? (Left) Chrishell Stause in Gaurav Gupta. Photo: Chrishell Stause/Twitter. (Right) Model in a Carol Chen Couture dress. Photo: Chin Boh Kay for SOTD

During a recent broadcast of the season 5 reunion of the American reality TV series Selling Sunset, cast member and fashion queen of the show Chrishell Stause turned up for her chat with host Tan France in a stunner of a dress. The chilli-red, one-shoulder, one-slit, floor-length goddess silhouette in pleated organza has a distinctive shoulder. It does not sit on the top of the body, but protrudes to eye-level in an arc that looked like one side of a bow. The gown is by the Delhi-based Indian couturier and Central Saint Martin alum, Gaurav Gupta, known for his sumptuous lehengas (the full-length skirts that Indian women wear on formal and ceremonial occasions, as did Carrie Bradshaw), saris, and—just as exquisitely—gowns that are as popular among Indian women as those from abroad.

Two days ago, at the newly renovated Design Orchard, a long dress with a similar shoulder treatment was shown. But rather than a single alary projection, the number came with two. The fabric used was also pleated organza, but unlike Mr Gupta’s truly sculptural design, these extended shoulders were not build on a bodice. Rather, it was the bodice itself: two oblongs bunched at the shoulder where the protuberances opened like arched springs, and creating a matronly bustiness at the chest. The gown is by the Singapore-based American couturier, Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising (San Francisco) alum and Singapore’s brightest design star Carol Chen, a recent practitioner of the craft of high fashion, whose confections are adored by her socialite friends.

Close up of the sculptured shoulder of Gaurav Gupta. Photo: Gaurav Gupta

Mr Gupta sometimes calls his sculptural shapes “mathematical forms”. It is no exaggeration, even if the constructions are, as considerable calculations are required to effect such a precise extension that shifts the natural line of the shoulders so dramatically. His designs have been described by women as “romantic” although Mr Gupta has referred to them as “abstract”. His clothes are so breathtakingly suitable for red-carpet events that they have been worn by international celebrities such as Megan Thee Stallion at the Academy Awards this past March and, at the recent Cannes Film Festival, Indian actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, the Italian actress Catrinel Marlon, Indonesian actress Raline Shah, and the American actress Liza Koshy, not to mention Cardi B in the music video No Love.

Ms Chen has described her debut couture collection as “one of the most incredible experiences of my life“. Apart from her muse and her mentor, it is not known who has worn Carol Chen Couture. It is impossible to trace a direct line to the provenance of her ideas for her dresses or from which pool of inspiration she draws. The collection, of which two looks made the runway at Design Orchard, is called Florescence (the state of an object in bloom) and is supposed to be “inspired by Gardens by the Bay”. Yet, it is hard not to chart her aesthetical choices—the shoulders, especially—to India. Ms Chen, a former beauty queen, is no doubt partial to gowns. And it is understandable she would be entranced by the designs of an experienced couture master. In the end, CC or GG, we’re sure you can see the art from the not for yourself.