Drops of Jupiter

Kiran Aman and Sonya Battla trace their way through the constellation with collections inspired by the Milky Way

Kiran Aman and Sonya Battla

Sonya Battla and jewellery designer Kiran Aman delivered a little bit of heaven last week when they launched their new collections at the Karachi Planetarium, a virgin venue for a fashion event.

Inspired by celestial bodies and the galactic world that exists parallel to ours, the event interpreted Aman’s ‘Meet your Void’ and Battla’s ‘Stellar’ with grace and raised the bar for how fashion events may be done in Pakistan. While fashion continues to churn out commercial shows ad nauseam, this event proved how effective design can be when a little intellect is applied to it.

“A single speck of dust gathers volume as it moves in orbit,” Battla explained the idea behind a gown that had a minutely beaded bodice balanced and weighed down by larger rocks. “It finally becomes a meteor, big enough to have the power to disturb or harm the earth if it comes in contact. I feel everything in this world is in a similar path of its own.”

Aman and Battla – who has been Brand Ambassador for the former’s label KFJ since 2009 – certainly were in a world of their own as they had planned a quiet launch far from the meaningless noise of the madding fashion crowd. A presentation within the dome of the Planetarium (titled Symphony of Silence) set the mood to extra-terrestrial and guided guests to the adjoining room that cradled magnificent installations of Sonya’s new western collection. Shadows of gowns in an almost moonlight-washed room interpreted heavenly bodies in space, from the use of a grey and bronze palette built in tissue, organza and chiffon or the extensive texturing that reminded one of everything ethereal, from the explosive Haley’s Comet to the subliminal, wavy surface of planet Jupiter. Battla, with her incredible handle on design had put an idea behind each and every piece and whether adorning inhuman mannequins or suspending from the sky by gossamer thread, it appeared as if the world revolved around high fashion.

A skirt inspired by the surface of the planet Jupiter

Aman’s new collection was just as effective. Not a single piece of jewellery touched the body it adorned, instead casting a shadow of mystique.

“My collections are always an extension of my emotions,” Aman spoke to Images after the event. “In this one, ‘Meet Your Void’ is a space where the mind is like a blank canvas, a place of suspension and heightened belief where everything exists in perfection very much like the universe and galaxies around us.”

This is the first time Aman used silver as a metal to work with, plating the pieces with gold and texturing them to appear as close to the surface of the moon as possible.

“I wanted the pieces which have been inspired by designs found in the galaxy to be large and have negative spaces to try to show voids,” she added. “Uneven stones are set to show imperfections, surrounded by a balanced design structure. There are some huge multipurpose jeweled pieces which have various options and can be used with a clasp or as a pendant and also have loops for them to be used as belts or hair accessories.”

This conceptual showing, based entirely on thought-provoking ideas, was as far a cry from commercial events as can be. Showings like this are hugely significant in keeping the balance between creativity and consumerism intact and play a huge role in taking fashion forward. While most women may prefer to invest in Kiran Aman’s and Sonya Battla’s more classical and readily available safe designs, it is their capability to just as easily push the mental envelope and create something out of the box. This will put them down in history as stellar designers.

Photography: Kohi Marri

PR: Lotus