OUTFIT OF THE DAY: The Mint, Pearls & Gota Dress

Now that spring is here in full force, and it's slowly getting warmer, my wardrobe is rejoicing - I'm finally getting to pull out some of my prettier, lighter outfits. I recently got the chance to wear this outfit below, a mint-coloured dress with gota work (gold pieces of cloth sew onto the fabric_, pearls and metal work all over - sounds like a heavy outfit but it wasn't!

I bought this outfit a few years ago before I was married from Pakistan via a Facebook group (which is no longer active, sorry guys!) for a very reasonably price, and then forgot I had it. I managed to find it again last year after some wardrobe-clearing, and put it aside for the warmer weather.

This is the outfit below, I love this shade of mint and feel like I don't get to wear it enough - it's perfect for spring season and feels pretty girly on. I also like the fact that this outfit is nice and floaty, which felt great on! I really like the gota-work on the outfit, which gives the outfit a shimmery-look, without making it feel heavy. It's a really traditional, old-school style of work but I think it's also pretty classic, and it works well with the pearls on this outfit.

This is what I wore with the outfit, I slightly over-loaded it a little with the gold, but I do like the end effect. I wore my wedding necklace for a more blingy look, and a plain gold clutch and sparkly heels - can't go wrong gold accessories!

This is me wearing the outfit, which felt very girly and floaty on - I really like the colour, although it took me while to find a matching scarf! I also like the length of this outfit on me - even though it is a longer shape, it worked with the cut of the outfit.

Outfit - Facebook group

Necklace - Pakistan via KaprayShapray designer

Clutch bag - DKNY

Shoes - Call It Spring

Hijab - Queens Market

I'm looking forward to wearing some of my older pieces for summer again, especially as some of them have a pretty classic look to them so don't go out of style. I loved wearing this outfit because of how ideal it was for the warm weather, and it feels like I don't have enough outfits in this colour. I'm sure I'll get a chance to wear this again soon - maybe with bright red lips this time?

The Dholki Nights #4: Blue Silk and Mehndi Hands

We've finally come to the last dholki night, which was the night that I put on my actual bridal henna on my hands and feet. We held this two days before the actual wedding day so that the henna on my hands and feet would come out darkest after two days (and it did for me!) and also because rather than have too much to do the day before the wedding, it would give us time to have one last shin-dig so that the day before we'd have the house to ourselves and be able to do last minute preps.

My outfit for the last dholki night was relatively simple after the previous dholkis. I had found this beautiful dupatta in a local store in a rich royal and peacock blue which was covered in gota work (strips of metallic fabric sewn on). I had actually bought this a good few months ago and immediately wanted to save it for my dholki, its traditional and simple, yet looked striking. I also loved it because it reminded me of the sort of thing my mum used to wear when she was younger.

I got a matching plain royal blue silk salwar kameez outfit stitched to match with the outfit, I wanted something simple which wouldn't cost too much and would comfy, especially if I ended up getting some mehndi stains on it!

This is how I wore it, I didn't get to take too many pictures because I soon got very busy, but you can see that I went for more of a Punjabi-style outfit; a short kameez with a loose salwar for bottoms. I love the vivid blue of the outfit and the dupatta, which was quite big so I had to keep draping it.

The dholki kicked off when my mehndi artist arrived to start on my bridal henna, which she ended up spending more than two hours on, doing intricate detail on my hands and feet. I didn't want mehndi further than my elbows because my bridal outfit was full-sleeved, but I did want really intricate designs so I gave my mehndi artist a few pictures for ideas of what I preferred, and she used that as inspiration for my final design.

This is my bridal henna (in progress and the end results!) on the night of the dholki, picture credits go to my sister! I did get some henna done on my feet as well but I won't post that because I hate pictures of my feet!

While I was doing mine, my sisters, mum, nieces, aunts and some of my friends also got their henna done as well - we didn't end up having enough cones for everyone so some of my sisters waited til the dholki was over and the next night to do their henna!

And of course I couldn't not include one of my toddler nieces getting a small butterfly on her hand from my mehndi artist, although this lasted about five minutes before it got wiped off!

I don't have a lot of pictures of the other guests, but this is me posing with one of my close friends, who wore a beautiful butter-yellow outfit and some amazing head-piece jewellery!

I also have a shot of two of my nieces wearing matching outfits in different colours eating some crisps they managed to persuade my mum to give them!

I really enjoyed this dholki, especially because it gave me an excuse to be the viewer and sit and watch everyone dance, sing and generally be silly without joining in! It was also really nice to have one last girly night with all of the family and friends before the big day - wedding post coming next!

Iggy Azalea's Bollywood & Eastern Influenced video

Iggy Azalea, an Australian singer/rapper released a new video for her single 'Bounce', which I though was interesting, less because of the song, and more because of her costumes. A lot of viewers have stated that they found this a little insulting, and slightly disrespectful because Iggy Azalea's meant to be in a temple and is dancing, but I think she meant to show the influence that India left on her, and to show it's positive side.

The costumes were apparently put together and styled by Alejandra Hernandez - I love that Parveen Bibi was one inspiration for the looks, and the fact that a lot of the jewellery and costumes came from India.

First up is this bridal outfit that Iggy is wearing in this video, which has the full jewellery set, matta-pathi and all with red lips and pretty henna. While we don't see a lot of blonde-haired brides in real life, it's easy to see the appeal to non-Asians. I think it is easy to look washed out in such a vivid red, but I think the rapper pulls it off her, and I really liked her make-up which looked immaculate and not too much.

I also noticed a lot of gold outfits and gota-style work on some of her costumes, which I liked because it showed a mixing of trends in Asian fashion, as well as a throw-back to the 60s and 70s; Paired with the singer's almost hippie hair and make-up look, this looks quite pretty.

I also liked the use of white jasmine flowers in her hair(although it's not traditionally worn this way!), and i think again, it suits the singer's colouring and the fact that she has set it off with simple, block colours.

 

I was less keen on some of the other outfits, like this full gold body-suit. While I'm sure it suits the singer's rapper status, I thought it looked a bit OTT, not to mention looked a bit hot to wear!

All in all, while some argued that this might be a little patronising to Indian and Desi culture, I don't think this is the singer's intention, while I agree that rap might not be the first thing which comes to mind when you think of Bollywood, it's interesting to see the singer's take. There has always been controversy over non-Asians in the Bollywood and Asian fashion scene (such as the TOWIE girls on the Asian Woman magazine, Selena Gomez's bindi controversy, or even Madonna's use of henna in her Frozen video!) but I think that just as there are people against it, there are also supporters of non-Asian women following trends.

Personally, I'm still on the fence on this one, I think Iggy Azalea looked great in this video, but I also think there's a few silly moments in it which could be done without!

All images are from Iggy Azalea's Bounce video

KAPRAY SHAPRAY: Deepika in Black & Gold by Abu Jani & Sandeep.

I really like this gold and black Abu Jani & Sandeep ensemble worn by Deepika at the beginning of this year, a gold and black embellished high neck kameez top with plain churidar bottoms, which is set off with very simple jewellery and make-up, and a very elegant hair-style. I'm not keen on outfits which are covered in bling all over, but this has been done very beautifully, and I'm a big fan of jacket-style outfits which look like sherwanis. I also think black and gold is a timeless and classic colour combination which can't go wrong, and certainly it has been well balanced out in this case.

I also noted that Pinkvilla had covered this same outfit, which was also worn by Aishwariya Rai but in a slightly different shape. While I think it looks nice on both actresses, I prefer the one worn by Deepika because the high neck and the updo hair-style makes it look more elegant, and I really like how the tiny splashes of orange are picked out by Deepika's red nails.

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