Kolkata-based designer's label is high on drama

VELVET DORI is all about flamboyance. From the flow of the fabric to the finesse of the bold cuts of the silhouettes, city-based Survika Singh’s dramatic designs make an impact without much effort. Her designs are impressive, be it a long flowing gown with an appliqued trail and dupatta or a lehenga with a half-blazer top. While pastel shades add elegance to her designs, ruffles, ostrich feathers and 3D flowers work as elements that further dramatise her collection. Sample high-collar tops, off-shoulder tops with ruffles, tube tops with wispy feathers, and slip-on saris with edgy cuts, and other extravagant elements.

Demure and dauntless

Singh followed her passion and launched the label in 2014, after quitting a banking job. The brand was relaunched last year, after a sabbatical of two years. Though Velvet Dori leans heavily towards Western fashion, hints of ethnic nuance completes her pieces. The 29-year-old offers, “I believe Western silhouettes are amazing, and I also know that Indian artistry is beyond comparison. So, though my designs are highly Western, you will find some Indian element —and that completes each of my thoughtfully crafted pieces. The terms velvet and dori represent that fusion for me.” Ironically, the designer hasn’t used velvet in her collections yet.

Her cocktail dress collection, Demur, is elegant yet theatrical. A bespoke gown named Aqua Aura with a 10-inch big flower on one shoulder from her Demur collection, caught our attention at the designer’s New Alipore boutique. Another piece, a fusion of a mini dress in lehenga, with a ruffled dupatta hanging from one shoulder, looked alluring. Expect fabrics like lycra, moss crepe, heavy satin, habotai silk and other imported silk fabrics, which she calls her canvases, to breathe new life into them with her eccentric ideas. “The fabric is obtained in virgin form, and then I add my own colour and design to it. I don’t like working with printed fabrics,” emphasises Singh, who confesses that inspiration occurs at the oddest times. For one thing, she’s known to wake up in the dead of the night and put down sketches of f the top of her mind. “The designs come naturally to me, and I follow my creative instincts,” says Singh.