Top 10 Fashion Moments Of The Decade, From Sarees At Cannes To Baby Bumps On Ramps

New Delhi:

Once, Coco Chanel, Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe were synonymous with fashion but it is the last decade that acquainted us with a fresher, more contemporary school of thought. 2010 to 2019 offered a never-ending list of trends – some we loved, others not so much. From Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s purple lips to Lady Gaga’s meat dress to Sonam Kapoor’s impressive styling, these last 10 years witnessed some big fashion moments. If there’s one thing that we are thankful for, it is the evolution of the style scene in the decade gone by. From the dominance of Bollywood stars on international red carpets to embracing inclusiveness (Pregnant models on the ramp? Yes, please), the fashion industry has changed and grown. So, as the decade ends, let’s take a look at 10 fashion moments to remember 2010-2019 by.

Ooh La La, Desi Girls At Cannes

The red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival is one of the most glamorous in the world of showbiz. In fact, there’s often grumbling about how the fashion threatens to overshadow the cinema at Cannes. In this tour de force of big gowns and big jewels, how is a desi girl to stand out? By packing a saree in her suitcase, of course. Over the decade, Indian stars attending Cannes discovered that the surest way to make a splash was to wear an Indian outfit – Vidya Balan, who was a jury member in 2013, wore nothing else, appearing in a series of Sabyasachi ensembles including maroon outfit with a heavily embroidered black dupatta and a white and gold saree. Cannes veteran Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has also picked sarees on several occasions, memorably an Abu-Sandeep drape she wore with a jacket the year she attended the film festival after giving birth to daughter Aaradhya. Sonam Kapoor, known for her fashion forwardness, took the saree look a notch higher in an Anamika Khanna saree and jacket with a nose ring as well as a metallic blue structured ensemble by Rimzim Dadu. She also picked saree-inspired gowns by Anamika Khanna for the red carpet.

Looks That Went Viral

The Internet never forgets and this list would have been incomplete without discussing the looks – good, bad and just plain ugly – that the collective online memory will remember forever. Remember when the Internet couldn’t ‘mauve’ on (pun intended) from Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s purple lips at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival? The Guru actress, rarely one to take a fashion risk, surprised us with startling lips that supplied Twitter with a lifetime of memes. Also unforgettable was Angeline Jolie’s exposed right leg at the 2012 Oscars. Angelina’s Atelier Versace dress was a hit but it was her leg, freed by a thigh-high slit and shown off by the actress’ clearly deliberate limb-exposing pose, that stole the show, so much so that special fan pages and Twitter accounts dedicated to Angelina’s right leg were created on social media. If we had to crown one person the queen of viral looks, it would be Priyanka Chopra who not only made a Google end-of-year list for her Oscar dress but also gave us back-to-back meme inspiring Met Gala appearances. In 2016, Priyanka’s white Zuhair Murad gown was the seventh most-searched Oscar dress. The next year, she wore a Ralph Lauren trench gown to the Met Gala, which Twitter compared to Aladdin’s carpet, malai in a cup of tea, a tent and what not. But that didn’t stop the Quantico actress from experimenting with her look at subsequent Met Galas. In 2019, Priyanka went with a futuristic Dior gown styled with an Afro and dramatic make-up in keeping with the theme ‘Camp: Notes On Fashion.’ Mostly lauded for sartorial choices, Sonam Kapoor was, for once, on the receiving end of mixed reactions to her Elie Saab feathered dress that she wore to the screening of Inside Out at the Cannes Film Festival in 2015.

Priyanka Chopra And Deepika Padukone’s Global Domination

This was the decade that Priyanka and Deepika took the world by storm. The former starred in her own American network show, Quantico, following it up with a villainous turn in the Baywatch movie opposite Dwayne Johnson; the latter made her Hollywood debut in Vin Diesel’s xXx: The Return Of Xander Cage. With these international projects came international red carpet appearances. Both Priyanka and Deepika appeared at the Met Gala and the Cannes Film Festival. Priyanka showed up at the Oscars, Golden Globes and Emmys. Deepika was invited to Oscar after-parties and the MTV EMAs in 2016; she also travelled the world attending xXxpremieres in one show-stopping dress after another.

Bollywood Sets Fashion Trends

When it comes to filmy fashion, history will be much kinder to 2010-2019 than it was to the Eighties or Nineties. This was the decade that gave us films which offered some steal-worthy, rather than cringeworthy, looks. Aisha, Student Of The Year 2 and Veere Di Wedding spring to mind. Across the world, Sex And The City 2 was continuing OG fashion influencer Carrie Bradshaw’s style revolution – in Bollywood, Sonam Kapoor and gang were doing their best to make films that served up entertainment with a side of fashion inspo. In 2010, the same year that Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte went to Abu Dhabi, Sonam Kapoor gave us a film that can be best described as every fashionista’s dream come true – Aisha. Action Replayy (2010) and Bombay Velvet (2014) redefined retro fashion. Ye Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013), Student Of The Year (2012) and Veere Di Wedding gave us fashion goals for the wedding season.

Baby Bumps On Runways

This fashion moment was empowering in every sense. Mothers-to-be took over fashion ramps and were a sheer delight to watch and learn from. Kareena Kapoor, pregnant with Taimur, walked the ramp in an embellished Sabyasachi Mukherjee lehenga in 2016. Supermodel Carol Gracias and TV star Shweta Salve also took catwalks by storm. In 2018, Neha Dhupia walked the ramp for fashion designer Payal Singhal’s show at the Lakme Fashion Week, where she was accompanied by her husband Angad Bedi.

Lady Gaga’s Fashion Renaissance

If there’s one thing that changed over these last 10 years, it is Lady Gaga’s sense of style. The singer began the decade in looks that turned the octane up from flamboyant to outrageous to outright shocking – meat dress, check. Then, after peak Gaga mid-decade, she switched downwards from outre to elegant, finally showing up the 2019 Oscars in a relatively conventional Hedi Slimane ballgown in black. Do we like it? We think the Poker Face hitmaker looks great whatever she wears – sometimes, though, we do miss the ghost of Gaga past.

A New Style: The Rise Of Airport And Gym Looks

It is almost impossible to scroll down your social media feed without chancing upon a celebrity’s picture, right? Some at gyms, some at the airport and some pictures are just plain old selfies. In the last decade, the rise of airport and gym looks has been quite a thing, a function partly of social media and partly of paparazzi culture. Conscious of cameras wherever they went, celebrities began paying special attention to their off-duty style. From trackpants, jumpsuits, tracksuits and oversized tees, the airport looks scream practicality and we love it. Let Deepika Padukone, Kareena Kapoor (despite a self-professed disdain for the ‘airport look’), Anushka Sharma and other stars be your guides to nailing comfort yet stylish dressing for travel. Also, leave it to Bollywood stars to make gym outfits look photoshoot-worthy with a collection of tank tops, track pants, cycling shorts, ponytails and quirky sneakers. Nobody gets the gym look better than Malaika Arora, Janhvi Kapoor and Sara Ali Khan.

Celebrity Clothing Brands

Perhaps a natural fallout of the airport and gym looks becoming fashion standard was that celebs realised that giving people that opportunity to dress like them IRL was a business opportunity that would fly. They went from fashion muses to fashion icons to, yes, fashion entrepreneurs; in the last ten years, several Bollywood stars started their own clothing and beauty lines – sisters Sonam and Rhea Kapoor launched Rheson in 2017, Deepika Padukone started her apparel label All About You in 2015, Anushka Sharma came up with Nush in 2017 and Katrina Kaif started her cosmetic and beauty line Kay By Katrina in 2019. Hrithik Roshan has an activewear label called HRX and Shahid Kapoor runs the fashion label Skult. Bipasha Basu started a line called Trunk Label.

Blurred Fashion Lines

If 10 years ago, we told you that a top male star had showed up at an award show wearing a skirt, you would probably laugh it off as a joke. But times changed and so did fashion, with more than a little help from Ranveer Singh who has worn everything from a septum ring on a magazine cover to skirts on red carpets to a high ponytail at an award show. Gender-neutral power dressing is slowly becoming the new normal, with actresses showing up in tuxedos and suits at big ticket events with increasing frequency. Lady Gaga’s done it, so has Sonam Kapoor and so have any number of other stars. May their tribe live long and prosper.

Hair: The Long And The Short Of It

Style experiments were not confined to celebs’ outfits. Over the last few years, Bollywood stars experimented with their hairdos and how. How can we forget Anushka Sharma’s pixie hair in the 2014 film PK or her wild curls in the 2018 blockbuster Sanju? In real life too, Anushka sported a lob and she looked simply fab. Even Deepika Padukone, known for her voluminous tresses, took a short cut this year. Katrina Kaif’s red hair all but overshadowed her outfits at her sole Cannes appearance in 2015. And there’s no mentioning hair without naming chameleon Kangana Ranaut, who shuttles between curly and sleek with clockwork regularity.

Bonus: That One Perfect Red Carpet Moment

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has a hit-and-miss equation with fashion, more miss than hit, it must be said. However, in 2014, she gifted us a standout red carpet look at the Cannes Film Festival, redeeming years of fashion fails in a gold mermaid gown by Roberto Cavalli, accessorised with coral lips and va-va-voom hair. In short, she slayed. All is forgiven, Aishwarya – if there is a fashion moment that sums the decade up, it is this.

That’s all, folks. See you in 2020.