|
C'est Moi creators, Rashmi Kumari and Muskan Taurani, are set to launch their second collection of flattering, affordable fashion
Rashmi Kumari confesses: "I'm totally obsessed with Naomi Campbell!” She is lounging in her Jumeirah living room, resplendent in a white flowered maxi dress, and gushing about her current celebrity fixation.
Except it's not just a fixation. The designer, who, along with friend Muskan Taurani, is behind the Dubai-based C'est Moi label, says she's in talks with the supermodel to be the face of the collection.
"We used to talk about the idea to our husbands, and they said ‘yeah, right'. It's so surprising how easy it is to get in touch with her,” says Kumari. The duo took a chance and met with Campbell earlier this year. "I went to London and she saw the collection, and she loved it,” says Taurani. The duo are currently in talks with Campbell, and hope she'll come in further down the line.
For now, however, they've got one thing on their minds: the launch of their second collection this Saturday. Their autumn-winter collection features flowing maxi-dresses and kaftans, super sweet mini day dresses and cocktail gowns in eye-popping colours. The twist? Everybody can wear them — whatever their shape or budget.
Real women, real clothes
"I really feel there's a huge gap for clothes for women with curves. Anybody can wear C'est Moi. It's your body that works with it,” says Kumari.
Forget your (usually male) designers who are out of touch with the reality of dressing women every day of the month. Kumari (though, admittedly, slim and gorgeous) started her line to dress herself — during her pregnancy.
She'd just moved to Dubai from New York, where she'd been working in the fashion industry for 10 years. "I went for a lunch with a friend and met Muskan there. It was strange that we both were pregnant at the same time,” she says. "I used to make a lot of maternity outfits for us, with a very designer look, and people would stop us in the road to ask us where we'd got the dresses from. We realised there's a huge void for sexy, wearable maternity outfits.” "And not ridiculously priced,” adds Taurani.
With Kumari's fashion background (she still works with designers such as Giorgio Armani, Anna Sui and Nicole Miller, producing intricate designs for them in her factory in India) and Taurani's marketing knowledge, the two launched a maternity line, which, thanks to its easy-to-wear shapes, soon found a bigger market.
Refined, but fun
"Everybody told us not to limit ourselves to maternity. As soon as you say maternity, there's an impression of something frumpy. We thought, why don't we do something that can be worn for maternity but at the same time make it glamorous and sexy?
Kumari's designs focused on empire waist gowns and kaftans, which can be worn before, during and after a pregnancy. The second collection still has that flowing, easy-to-wear shape which has been so popular in our hot, sticky environment, but the embellishment is more refined and the colours made for fun.
"The collection is called 1001 Arabian nights,” says Taurani. "The kaftans, the colours, the workmanship and the styling are based around this idea of feeling like an Arabian princess. It's all about colour and embellishment. Not over the top, but really pleasing to the eye.”
Colours vary from coral, yellow, ecru, aubergine and black, while decoration has been inspired by peacocks, especially in an incredible bolero jacket that was "a bit of fun” for the designers. Kumari and Taurani are both in love with a hot coral kaftan.
Kumari also designs her own fabrics, and the patterns are cut with the prints in mind. "One dress is a piece of jewellery that we printed on to fabric. The patterns are not random — the prints are actual pieces of jewellery.”
Something new she's tackled this time around is jersey. "It's an extremely tricky fabric, you can't have the slightest bulge, but the way these patterns have been cut, with a lot of drape to the dresses, it actually highlights your assets and hides what you don't want.”
What accessories does she recommend people wear with her dresses? "I would just wear giant hoops. Our clothes are a conversation piece in themselves, why would you take away from it? Accessorise with a smile!”
Don't miss it!
Check out the new collection from C'est Moi at noon on Saturday, October 18 at Capital D Studio in Dubai. Email guestlist@cestmoime.com to get an invite. Look out for C'est Moi at S*uce, Chocolate and Pickles and Ounass in Dubai, Ounass in Bahrain, Villa Moda in Kuwait and Eye Candy in Oman.
Designing in Dubai
C'est Moi launched at Dubai Fashion Week in March this year, but decided this time around to show their new collection privately. "DFW was a great platform,” says Rashmi Kumari. "We met a lot of buyers and were introduced to a lot of media. It was a great experiment, because we didn't want to spend a lot of money because we were nobodies. They make it easier for first-timers, but at the same time they need to be aggressive about making it of an international calibre and be a little more stringent about the screening of designers.” So what about the Dubai fashion scene? "As far as I'm concerned, Dubai is already on the fashion map,” she says. "This is really where we want to be. This is where it's going to happen next. I wouldn't want to move anywhere else.”
|
