'Wings' of elegance

Impressive flairs

It was an emotional moment for designer Sonia Sri Bhattu at the Bangalore Fashion Week recently. Putting up her first ever fashion show, her collections were a perfect combination of class and elegance. With simple and minimalistic style, her designs had innovative clothes that represented the strong personality of a woman who dared to be different. “I like flaired garments, they are my style. Coming to the fabrics, I played with georgette and chiffon. I also used raw silk for few structures,” says Sonia.

Inspired by Cleopatra, her collections had varied prints on colourful flair gowns. “The print was inspired by Cleopatra. I have my screen printing shop and so it was easy for me to come up with this unique print inspired by the flawless beauty queen,” she says.

Calling her collections ‘Wings’, her designs had a touch of white and gold that highlighted the beauty of a woman. The accessorising for the gowns too were unique. “My sister, a jewellery designer, designed all the accessories for my show. Accessorising plays an important part in enhancing the look and it is an add-on to the whole style,” she says.

A Bengaluru-based designer, she has a degree in fashion designing from Raffles Millennium International. Having the popular Telugu actress Lakshmi Manchu as her showstopper, her designs were a hit on the ramps. “I was overwhelmed by the response and cheer from the audience. I missed my dad who is the man behind my success. He has always encouraged me and I am eternally grateful to him,” says the emotional Sonia. This budding designer, who gained popularity with just one show, says, “I want do more such shows. I want to experiment with different trends, prints and embroideries. I love to do surface embellishment and printing so I want to play with the prints and fabrics. I want to do everything out-of-the-box,” she explains excitedly. The designer says that she wants to be a celebrity designer one day and also wants to be the next Alexander McQueen. “When a celebrity is seen in  designer wear, people shout out loud saying that it is Manish Malhotra’s design and so on. In the near future, I want people to call out that it is Sonia Sri Bhattu’s design and that will be the most valued time of my life,” she wraps up.