WOTTONCOOL

The third of four designers featured in the Fashion Asia show held last week was Shamaeel.

A Corporate Law and Finance degree holder (from the University of California at Berkeley, no less!) She has played both the role of designer and buyer over the span of more than two decades.

My ears perked when I heard about her influence for this collection – Mughul Miniatures

(Source)

In summary, they are relatively small paintings with pack a punch in terms of the amount of detail, symbolism, storytelling and work that goes into each piece of Mughul Empire history.

Read more about them here.

And the Asian Civilizations Museum has a Mughul Jewellery exhition running till 27 June 2010.

Anyway…

This collection incorporated a lot more embellishments and detailing that kept the show visually appealing.

And I quite admire how refined and polished the pieces felt/made me feel.

The use of a variety of prints was also rather impressive y’knw? A mish-mash of prints could go really bad really fast if not executed well.

But that wasn’t the case for Shamaeel.

More or less, I felt that the pieces were well done. Although how well they integrate with an average-person’s wardrobe, I can’t really say.

Anyway, my favourite series of looks were at the end of her feature, where the fabric incorporated the imagery of (what I presume to be) actual miniature paintings.

I wasn’t able to get a good tight shot. But the incorporation of these painting imagery into the fabric scored plus points with me. (:

All in all, Shamaeel was a very pleasing visual experience. But, as much as I admire the clothes, I doubt they would fit well with my wardrobe. Filtered out into separates, maybe there is still hope. But bold dresses like these… er, I’ll give it a miss.