Poll This!
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For the past several years, designer Ritu Kumar has been dressing up Miss Indias for the National Costume round but this year (post Sushmita Sen taking over the selection process for Miss India Universe), the costume has gone a different route. A very different route.
Ushoshi’s gown this year was designed by Kolkata based designers Dev R Nil who on suggestion from Ushoshi dropped the traditional sari/lehenga idea and created this piece inspired by the national bird: the peacock.
Yes, it is quite drastic and may find very less takers but I don’t think I could take yet another cutout-choli design from Ms. Kumar! As for the gown itself, it is too in-your-face-peacock. Here’s hoping over the years, we get better!
What’s your verdict on the design? Love it or hate it?
P.S. Catch Ms. Sri Lanka in a more toned down blue costume inside.
P.P.S. ‘apurva’ reminds us that the design seems eerily similar to the Marchesa Spring 2010. An homage to Marchesa (or McQueen) or badly executed (or well executed depending on who you ask) inspired gown.
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Ushoshi Sengupta at Miss Universe 2010 National Costume Round
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Left: Alexander McQueen, Fall 2009
Right: Marchesa, Spring 2008
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Ishanka Madurasinhe at Miss Universe 2010 National Costume Round
well, i think it is terrific!! Event appropriate and she looks gorgeous!
It’s the same pic.
Both pics are of Ms.India only…don’t see the toned down version of SL…the gown is wee bit in your face but it seems like it got the point across…neither like it nor hate it…meh
Wait, the pics inside are the same as main page..
No more lahengas! Love it by default… like the color… and appreciate the thought that went into the design…
Oops! Swapped pic out!
OMG! Hate Miss Sri Lanka’s look. Its almost like a comparison between how to do it right and wrong.
So true! the Miss Sri Lanka gown is mis mash of some dye technique with the different tones of blue and some gold and what not!.. aaaah its tacky! and to top it up the not flattering at all jewellery! NO NO
The styling IS awful!
Since when did India’s national costume become a gown? Whatever happened to national pride and wanting to represent the country? A nicer way to do something would have been to highlight ethnic weaves or materials but to still have traditional attire like a saree or lehenga. A national dress is not supposed to be “different” — the reason why it is a national dress is because it has timelessly represented the women of a nation. This monstrosity is not only insulting to countless Indian women who enjoy wearing their national dress, but is increadibly ugly and does nothing for her body or her face.
ditto!
true! totally true!
totally agree
Yeah i kinda agree. They could have kept it basically Indian and changed the theme. There are so many types of costumes in each region of India. They could have gone like the odissi dance costume style, or if they want to go even more OTT, then kathakali silhouette. There is the half sari which is also extremely flattering. Merging that and national flower/bird ideas…that would be perfect !
I too didn’t like that they went for a gown for the national costume (until & unless there’s a large ethnic group in India who wear gowns and are being represented here through the gown).
But it was innovative of trying to represent the national bird instead of just a plain saree or lehenga.
What they should have done was represent the national bird concept in one of the traditional wears of India made using the local material. There are so many different traditional wears in India and each one can be represented each year.
Katy..relax and take a deep breath. It’s just a costume!
It is not just a costume. It is representing national costume on an international platform. Shameful!
I am sorry, I cannot relax. It is not just a costume, she is representing us. If she wore this for her own pleasure I really would not care. BTW, I am not sure why everyone is commenting about it, or why it is of interest if it is “just a costume”. For that matter, why bother with this blog?
In addition to my response below, part of the problem with this thing is that it is a costume…India is known for beautiful silks and cottons, patterns and intricate work, not this thing which is just costumish it’s actually clownish.
I agree!! Why can’t we have a Miss India wear a nice traditional saree (like Nandita Das) or even a salwar kameez. I study in a university in saudi arabia and we usually wear western clothes but the one time I wore a churidar everyone loved it. Fusion is good but not at an oppurtunity where we can actually showcase our heritage.
i agree with the first comment by katy. but apparently, the entire pageant was full of trashy dresses.
totally agree, a saree would have been nice, this is not only weird as it represents nothing about India, its a rip off of some other designer, national bird is not so evident, what is evident is a badly fit, ugly monstrosity. Whats with that piece going around her and wrapping on her wrist, a take on the pallu worn Bengali style? if so, its really a bad take.
she looks like a mess, dress, hair everything. They should have had a saree, better hair and while at it teach how a proper Namaste is done. The Sri Lankan contestant atleast got that right.
The gown or whatever that is on Ms.India is just okay. WTHey for Ms.Srilanka outfit.
*Srilanka’s
Miss India for me-change from the usual National Costume without completely straying away from the traditional stuff.
In general I like Dev r Nil’s stuff.
Am i the only one, or is this dress completely inspired from the marchesa spring ’08 peacock dress worn by georgina chapman. ITS TOO SIMILAR!
Damn… you are right! Sigh… disappointed with it now 🙁
I just don’t see the similarity or the “inspiration”…must not be looking in the right place! The only similarity I could see when I squinted at this was the peacock theme. But that’s where it stops for me.
🙂
Cant help but me reminded of Blair Waldorf’s Marchesa feather ball gown
That’s the one featured above.
Sorry the McQueen/Marchesa image didnt appear when I posted my comment
This has to be one of the biggest fashion disasters ever.
Correction – This is the BP oil spill. Do you think this dress was made to sabotage Miss India purposely?? 😀
I disagree. I feel like India rarely takes chances in the pageant and takes things too literally when the girls show up in a lengha. Having a lengha or sari for the “National costume” segment of the pageant just shows how uninspired we are. We have so much diversity in India and so many amazing things to draw from and reflect in an outfit that is supposed to represent India that a sari or lengha simply cannot convey. You should be able to take one glance at our costume and see multiple facets to the country. I love that they showcased the national bird, most countries national birds are def not as glamorous. If you think this is too literal you should check out Miss Costa Rica!!!
I second that!
Agreed:))))))
Next thing we know, Ms.India is going to wear a tiger skinned jumpsuit to represent “national animal”?
hopefully not tiger skinned, tiger print maybe… 🙂
That’s because Costa Rica doesnt have a national costume other than the run of the mill dress. We have something that we can showcase. This thing is run-of-the-mill for India and completely uninspired. Infact, it is a design stolen from non-Indian designers. How un-national can you get and how can you applaud that?
But this round calls for a NATIONAL costume!!! Sure, doing something different is nice and should be welcomed, but honestly, putting an Indian girl in a gown (which is primarily Western), which shamefully is a rip-off of another designer (how is that for uninspired?) is like learning Physics for a Chemistry test! It just does not relate!
It would have been nice to stray from Ritu Kumar who had become quite repetative….maybe put the contestant in some other traditional garb, it would still have been beautiful, inspired and complying with the guidelines.
Lol @ “learning physics for a chemistry test.”
Sorry my comment was supposed to be directed @katy
I didn’t vote coz none of the 3 options are valid for me-I like it.. it can be improved but its SUCH a relief-I was getting mighty tired and bored of the same Ritu Kumar stuff
national costume?!really?
1st dress is realyl really nice…2nd ewww
the black n gold Alexender Mcqueen dress is like a dream!!!! beautiful!!!!!!
n Uroshi’s dress is bad!!!…she cud b thrown out of competition for the soul reason that the dress is real bad!!!!!!
yuk yuk yukkkk!!!!!!!!! wat is ishanka wearing???? omg!!!!!!
“Ushoshi’s gown this year was designed by Kolkata based designers Dev R Nil who on suggestion from Ushoshi dropped the traditional sari/lehenga idea and created this piece inspired by the national bird: the peacock.”
well, if a full grown woman WANTS to dress up like a peacock in public, then whats left to say to that? nothing. good luck to her. she will need it.
Bah compared to the rest of the Ms. Universe disasters,- UK, Australia etc- she looks like a dream.
why don’t indian designers like ritu kumar reinvent.what made her stick to the same design year after year.am shocked.as for this design the less said the better.the miss indias will be far better wearing a simple saree.
Love it !
i like what ushohi is wearing….much better than ishanka
something different than the usual ritu kumar!!
It is a lehenga, if you guys notice carefully.
a bit stylised, but its the desi wear only.
and yes, RELIEF that Ritu Kumar’s no longer throwing her cutout cholis at Miss Indias.
and yes, a bit like the Marchesa one.
and yes, with all due respect, Miss Sri Lanka’s costume seems a bit too…costumey!
I love the peacock feather detailing but the top part of the gown looks out of place…I think a lehenga with the peacock detailing all over would have looked fab!
i love that mcqueen dress above! for the peacock dress, it hasn’t been made very well, i think a nice simple ritu kumar would have been better.
A simple ritu kumar? This is not a kitty party but some pageant so it has to be glamorous.
This is out right costum-y and that too a plagirised one. Though I like the gown even if it is inspired(heavily) But i certianly object to her wearing it to international event. Millions are watching her and she is reperesnting India wearing a knockoff, iam sure it doesnt leave good taste in mouth. It is wrong SO WRONG and i fail to see why people are OK with it.
Completely agree with you. Don’t designers realize that its so easy to catch plagiarized designs in this day and age. Its an insult to the nation really
I like the idea of designing a peacock inspired costume… however not something that lacks originality… its just sooooo SAD!
For the first gown, I think if the dress below the waist was emerald green then it would be less jarring. Afterall peacocks have a beaituful shade of blue and greens.
Blue gowns can be garish or royal depending on the shade of blue.
I think the gown was too amatuerish in term of color and execution. A lot can be done with the peacock’s colors, a more established designer could perhaps come up with a better color combination…
For the first pic, if the part below the waist was emerlad green, it could have looked great! Afterall, peacocks have lovely shades of blue and green…..the ink blue looks too garish IMO.
I think there was more peotential to do much better with the gown….right now it just looks too amature!
As a stylist and therefore part of indian fashion scene, this really angers me. The material, the colors, the fit of the bodice all scream tacky! Would it hurt designers like this to use better fabrics? Also in countries elsewhere, where the pageant industry is huge, there are specific designers who design only for pageants. India got it right with Hemant trivedi’s red gown for Lara Dutt in 2000.
on an aside, this is what dev rnil have to say : Defending the outlandish attire, Nil says, “The brief given to us was that it should be inspired by the national bird, peacock. We chose this dress as it’s contemporary. It may look like a gown but it’s inspired by the traditional sari. The peacock feathers make up the pallu that spreads open when she does the Namaste.”
My point being what if she wants to do ‘adaab’?
if being “different” read non-traditional/Indian etc was so important, why is she doing Namaste? That is as Indian as it gets. The people who work with her really did a dis-service to her and the country. We can do better than this on many fronts, including the styling.
I actually like it…cant see it well enough to know the material etc, but I think it looks really cool and fascinating..not tacky at all….but hey thats just me…..so…
Will there be a day when i would get to see a gorgeous kanchipuram saree on this stage?
Forget that, maybe something indian thats not a lehenga.
I dont like this gown, there is nothing indian about it.
Gown design is just weird. Too many things happening here.Its either a saree or a gown. You cannot have both.
However in comparison to Miss. Sri Lanka it does not look bad ;-).
You know what? I don’t care about the dress. . it’s the hair that bugs me.
The gown looks fab and non conformist to me. Since when did people take patent on the designs of feathers and inanimate objects… That’s how feathers fall for a peacock. Is Late Mcqueen inspired by Marchesa or Marchesa by McQueen? Would the design have been better recieved if the girl would have walked in like those Victoria secret models with the whole wings open?? Come on how long will suffer from this tall poppy syndrome? Let’s give the credit to the designers for at least trying to do something new! With due respect to Ritu kumar it’s time that the old makes way for the new. Finally as a layman who appreciates fashion this gown , dress or a modified ghaghra cholii seems like a welcome relief to the weighed heavy bridal stuff. Can we get some better , clearer pictures to see it in detail??
As an afterthought how many other national costumes did we ever take notice off? And quarrel on a blog? It seems like we as indians are resistant to change… And vilify people in the garb of ‘boring’, ‘ horrible’ , plagerized etc… But yes we do have right to like it or hate it…
Thank you DevNIL for replying via your PR
Whatever happened to wearing a sari.. always a crowd pleaser
Her hair(the indian girl) is something that she should have paid attn to.. the pouffy gown with the pouffy hair not a good way to represent India….
by a crowd pleaser I ment.. everyone on the blog..lol..
Anything looks good compared to the Ritu(respectfully G’s)designs,its like seeing the same dress in diff colour every year….atleast this is something different.
usho is armed with a kilelr wardrobe,been wondering y u guys aint featuring her,u shud check her evening gown out……its HAWT!!!!
Hey… What Ushoshi is wearing is looking quiet nice…. The drape is very much like a saree ,just that it’s not ” typical”.India is all abt versatality n not monotony! I just feel the hair bit messy….a neat hairdo wud hv done more justice to the look.