Paris Fashion Week Autumn Winter 2011: Manish Arora

Though I love classic Parisian chic just as much as the next fashionista, I have to admit, when I come to Paris Fashion Week, I come for the avant garde. From the commercial runways of New York and Milan, to the experimental and whimsical of London, it's always a pleasure to round off the season with the best of the sartorial circus, the clothes that make non-industry insiders go "who on EARTH would wear that?!" and stir stylists in their seats. One such designer on the PFW calendar is Manish Arora, India's wunderkind whose collections are always a sort of a Bollywood meets sci-fi fashion fantasy.

This season, it was literally magic in motion, as Arora declared the gypsy as "new age style icon" his muse. He also cited the magic dolls of Berlin-based artist Amrie Hoffstater as an inspiration, which amounted to a rather nonsensical yet delightfully wacky assortment of looks. A kind of Judy Jetson with hair twisted into a UFO-sized bun and sculpted armor-like shifts walked the runway, amidst a hoopala of magic tricks which punctuated the show's beginning, middle and end (yes, a literal wizard appeared on stage to produce models from flaming boxes...ooohhh....ahhh!!).

Something of a visual overload, Manish's trademark bright colors and heavy hand embroideries covered the cut velvet patchwork and pearl coated garments and sculpted three dimensional "origami" cages, bodices and adornments added to the theatrical effect of the lot. One of my favorite pieces included a tongue-in-cheek fox fur stole with red LED eyes and a pelt full of plastic orange arrows. Turquoise puff shoulders with protruding spikes? Oh the absurdity of the fabulous!