Manish Arora's weapons to bedazzle and shine

I was going through some old magazines and found this image of a futuristic woman wearing a metallic armadillo-like headdress, taken from the October 1968 issue of Italian magazine Domina.

The photograph – that is very Qui êtes-vous, Polly Maggoo? - perfectly ties in with the space age theme designers loved at the time.

In the mid-to-late 60s, many designers experimented with futuristic elements in their creations, among them also Pierre Cardin, André Courrèges and Rudi Gernreich.

The Domina cover made me think in a way about Manish Arora’s Spring/Summer 2010 collection.

Presented during Paris Fashion Week at the Crazy Horse, Arora’s show – the fifth by the designer in the French capital – was characterised by a futuristic atmosphere.

The models looked slightly robotic in their well-sculpted dresses covered in sparkling crystals or metallic studs.

There were fewer painstakingly rich and intricate embroideries reminiscent of zardozi than usual and at times the models wearing rows of shiny gems as headdresses looked more like disco diva than alien dominatrixes.

Architecture was echoed in rigid structures chracterised by angular shapes over-imposed on body-hugging tops or dresses and in a white skirt that seemed to be made out of three-dimensional pointed domes.

Pleated motifs and graphic prints that created 3D like illusions completed the collection that was maybe less colourful – metal grey and silvery shades prevailed over bold fuchsia, bright orange and intense blue – yet the highlight of the collection didn’t stand in the colour variation but in the use of different fabrics and materials such as cotton and silk and in the knits enriched with sequins and crystals.

Pierre Cardin conceived his futuristic designs as uniforms for an army of young and fashionable people.

Manish Arora's futuristic creations are no uniforms, but designs dedicated to dynamic women with a strong sense of style.

Their only problem is that they should be sold in shops with a warning: "Weapons to bedazzle and shine - cosmic effect guaranteed" .

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