Kiara Advani in Rohit Bal's Kaaynaat is an example of how not to honour late designers, look to Lady Gaga instead
Kiara Advani's fashion faux pas streak continues in her woefully altered Rohit Bal look. A rundown on what not to do with legacy designers' farewell collections
While there are many silhouettes and aesthetics that Kiara Advani has seamlessly modeled over the years, off late the actor appears to be having a stroke of bad luck (we mean styling) when it comes to her public appearances. The latest in this regard, entails her stepping out in the late Rohit Bal's farewell collection, Kaaynaat. About 2 weeks after the collection was showcased at the FDCI hosted Lakme Fashion Week, news of the designer's demise was shared. Though it was not officially presented as such, Kaaynaat was in fact, Rohit's swansong collection elevating its ensembles to legacy-level grandeur. There is then, a sense of responsibility that comes with wearing these pieces with the perspective of honouring a fashion designer's final vision, considering the collection in question represents their goodbye to sartoria.
Coming to Kiara, she looked lovely in the Sufi-style pleated floor-length anarkali. But was it worn the way Rohit intended it to be? No. The version of this ensemble which graced the runway was layered with a full-length, neatly frayed and heavily embroidered coat which Kiara simply skipped.
For context, we have a few other instances of when the final collections designed by late industry titans, were honoured the way their creator envisioned it, even if it wasn't a fit for the the muse or model's personal aesthetic.
Thierry Mugler
2001 marked the last set of collections which Thierry Mugler designed for his eponymous label. Among the wild, whimsical and very futuristic aesthetics, the pre-Fall line featured a purple leather corset striped in black. The archival piece was brought back to life by model Amelia Gray Hamlin for her birthday back in June 2023.
Alexander McQueen
Alexander McQueen showcased his last runway show, Plato Atlantis in October 2009. Having passed away in February the following year, the credit of his swansong collection's mammoth success, especially when it came to transgressing the elite fashion circles into the conscience of the layman, significantly lies with Lady Gaga. In the nascent stages of her monster mom fame, she wore the closing look from the McQueen show, down to the last detail, including the grotesquely iconic Armadillo shoes, for a brief bit in the official music video for Bad Romance. Needless to say, this star-aligned crossover went onto mint the Armadillos as a staple, as much for McQueen as it was for Gaga. 'Walk walk fashion baby' indeed.
Karl Lagerfeld
Karl Lagerfeld's final collection for Chanel was presented posthumously in March 2019 at the Grand Palais, a passionate ode to his 36-year long tenure helming the fashion house. The keynote Chanel aesthetic was magnified to represent an Alpine-coded winter wonderland-esque essence with tweed on tweed, ruffles on ruffles, bows and looped chains reigning strong when it came to the ensembles. Cara Delevingne, Penélope Cruz and Kaia Gerber among others turned muse and there wasn't a dry eye in the house just for how much of Karl every last design from the collection — co-created by Chanel's successor Virginie Viard — truly represented.
Virgil Abloh
Virgil Abloh's tenure as artistic director for menswear at Louis Vuitton, starting 2018 to his demise in 2022, essentially spelled out a new era of melded fashion for the house with high-end streetwear cementing its place. His final collection, LV's menswear Fall/Winter 2022 line, was presented posthumously at Paris Fashion Week in January 2022. The line's creative rationale, was to "consolidate the themes and messages of the eight-season arc" Virgil helmed at Louis Vuitton. Strong prints, mould-breaking silhouettes, Graffiti art and three-dimensional larger-than-life accessories perfectly captured Virgil's creative flair, making for a fitting tribute to his time there.
What's your take on the personal tweaking of legacy ensembles?