AW11 FLEURS DU MAL

Inspired by Charles Baudelaire and his most famous volume of poems ‘Les Fleurs Du Mal’, the AW11/12
Customarily pushing boundaries, this showcase was India’s first digital show using a pastiche of moving and still images accompanied by menacing music to set the tone. Models sauntered down the catwalk in measured movements as representations of the digital imagery that loomed on the screen.

‘Les Fleurs Du Mal’ caused outrage when first published in Paris in 1857 with six of the poems being forcibly removed due to moral grounds. Deception, decadence and debauchery are just three of the themes running throughout of which Little Shilpa has capitalised on by ‘poeticizing their erotic melancholy from feeling to form‘

Upon first glance the collection appears bright and light with an eye-popping colour palette and a magical air. Rainbow coloured corsages sit side by side exaggerated Swarovski crowns embedded in light reflecting Perspex creating a visual explosion to the eye. Whilst multihued hearts and stars nestle snugly in every crevice from the floral headdresses right through to the vibrant epaulets that complete the collection. Its only on closer inspection when you notice the subtle touches such as the fading colours of the petals, indicating a slow loss of life that the inspiration of Les Fleurs Du Mal’ really becomes clear. Death, once again, preoccupies the mind and yet through creative endeavours, one continues to find new ways to explore this darkness.