Rohit Bal - Holiday Distraction

Seasons Greetings!

I've been chilaxing over the Christmas break and no - haven't hit the boxing day sales - never do. Holidays are for de-stressing not fighting with crowds to get a few of quid off - or if I want a real bargain at the designer sales you have to queue from early hours in the cold to get anywhere near anything decent - nah first few sale days are not for me!!

Apart from watching Christmas classics on TV I've been going through bits and bobs I have my eye on..

I saw this Rohit Bal outfit some months back which was my fav from his Delhi Couture Week Collection. I like the earthiness of the outfit - the bold embroidery, crochet and the cut of the dress really caught my eye. I did try and get in touch with them to get more details and an idea of costs without much luck.

Anyway, since then I have come across designer Maryam Malik who seems to have made an inspired piece pretty well. Hers is a 16 panelled dress with motifs on all panels for £150. Designers obviously have the edge as their creativity, mastery and showman ship allows them to develop beautiful pieces but for the rest of us who want to emulate a little bit of that style we do need to compromise a little and can not expect the same finesse; with that in mind I quite like her version. There are some changes and a few things missing in her outfit but I think if we add back the velvet strip, give it a tailed cut and perhaps a better quality crochet this can be enhanced into something prettier although this is a good base to work with.

As for the seller Maryam Malik she seems pretty genuine, by random coincidence she has made outfits for a family to wear to a wedding I attended - the clothes looked really good but I can not comment on the quality as I didn't see anything up close. The other outfits she has photos of that she has made look okay but what I like most is she has a separate album with close-ups of the types of handwork she can get done. I think this is a very useful feature as this is where I am usually let down. If you can chose in advance exactly what the embroidery will look like it can save a lot of disappointment!