Fashion star: Why designers are advocating beige for endless summer days

As a designer’s unbleached kora or a painter’s blank canvas, beige posits itself as a starting point, a figurative ground zero. For the colour to make a heavy-handed comeback in the realm of fashion speaks volumes. It’s a whole nude world and the immediate questions that come to mind are: is this an antithesis to neon trimmed athleisure? Are Philophiles world over craving the iconic Old-Céline look of head-to-toe neutrals? Could this be the return of normcore 2.0? Or does beige, in the age of oversharing and fake news, stand for #nofilter and a return to simplicity?

Anushka Sharma in Shift

Colour can concisely translate the mood of a season (or even a generation!). The year 2017 reflected a twentysomething’s rose-tinted world view, thanks to millennial pink, 2018 belonged to Gen Z yellow and 2019 is quickly turning out to be the year of 50 shades of beige. Layered looks of fawn, sand, tan, egg-shell, ivory, camel, caramel, coffee… you get the drift.

“This pared-back put-together aesthetic points to a shift in priorities. We are spending more on experiences, travel, beauty, lifestyle. People would rather buy less but buy higher-quality timeless pieces,” explains Sara Maggioni, head of womenswear at trend forecaster WGSN. Or perhaps, as a way to combat click-bait fashion (Instagram-worthy neon Crocs and skin-tight cycling shorts), beige serves as “a palate cleanser when fashion is drowning in neon and streetwear,” says Marina Larroude, fashion director of luxury department store Barneys New York. “It’s only natural that we evolve and give customers another reason to shop and invest in something new. Only this time, make it head-to-toe so after the trend passes she can still break it down and mix it into her regular wardrobe.”

An all-beige look on Stella Simona

Closer to home, the rawness and simplicity of this spectrum is echoed by several designers. “The Calico toile or kora is an unbleached version of any fabric and the first sample we make in a style. There have been times we’ve liked the toile so much that we’ve made the garment in the same shade,” says Sneha Arora of her use of flesh pink and deeper sun-kissed tones. At Huemn by Pranav Mishra and Shyma Shetty, it serves as the perfect backdrop to bring out colours, like lush green embroidery on honey-co-loured dresses.

“It’s also emblematic of rural India—the mud huts and barren walls. The natural dyes and fibres that come out of these regions, like eri silk, tusser silk, mulmul and linen, carry beige undertones,” says Ruchika Sachdeva of Bodice, who primarily works with beige, navy and glimpses of grey. It’s also perfect for a country with tropical climes. Tina Tahiliani Parikh, whose 31-year old multi-designer store Ensemble has withstood change in the Indian fashion industry, shares, “While jade and coral are seeped in our psyche since Mughal rule, beige and white work very well for the Indian summer. It’s similar to black as the go-to colour in cold countries.” Does she see a difference in how it’s worn today? “In contrast to the heavily embellished beige of 10 years ago, women today are happy to wear pure colours and fabrics—a monotone anarkali or a champagne lehenga that shows off her jewellery.”

Rara Avis

Although “new” this season, the colour comes with a side of nostalgia. “Beige has an old soul about it. My father always wore beige, cream and khaki. It’s calming and you feel more settled when you wear it,” says Mishra, pointing to his own beige sweater and track pants he wears as he speaks to me. For Sonal Verma, who predominantly works with the palette at Rara Avis, it’s the sign of simpler times—desert sand, summer dust and the arrival of the postman. It is also not the first time beige has come to the fore. In 2009, the runways were awash with neutrals. Vogue India carried a feature titled ‘Crème de caramel’ in 2011. And in 2014, the term normcore was coined for that tea-biscuit baggy sweater and trouser combination.

A woman in beige portrays the properties of the shade—its uniformity, the luxuriousness of leather against rich tan and the colour’s second skin quality.

In her skin

Sneha Arora. Image: Sagar Ahuja

Neutral as it may be, it is still a loaded colour. It would take a certain kind of woman to pull off this polar opposite of peacocking. “She’s someone who isn’t distracted or pulled in different directions by trends,” says Sachdeva. For someone whose world is a beige colour wheel, a woman wearing the colour can be equated to “seeing a beautiful woman without makeup—comfortable in her skin, authentic and effortless,” says self-confessed beige-and-greige-only wearer, Bangladeshi- American designer Stella Simona. To take the boring out of beige, she goes tonal in sepia coats, ecru polo necks and off-white jeans. According to Shetty, the rise of the colour comes as “part of the ‘my skin is beautiful’ movement that has resulted in Indians picking up more beige compared to the bright pinks and neons we would pick earlier for the fear of looking too washed out.”

The new black

Rara Avis. Image: Sagar Ahuja

“Beige in India is what black is to the West. It goes so well with vermilion and charcoal—the perfect prop to create a mise en scène,” explains Nimish Shah, founder of Shift and creative director of Bhaane, whose khaki and camel safari suits have found favour among thinking women like Anushka Sharma. To think of a woman dressed in beige is to conjure images of someone no-nonsense. A real-life Miranda Priestly. As Shah says, the colour softly says (note, not screams) “not available, try harder.” She’s crisp, fast, but mostly calm and serene. “For us, beige is the base to create practical tunics over roomy pants,” adds Ragini Ahuja of Ikai. Practicality and ease of wearing something uniform-like has been an armour for great thinkers all along. A sandy suit on the iconic Katharine Hepburn—1930s feminism wrapped in refinement. Roll-neck, blue jeans, white sneakers—the go-to wardrobe choice for Steve Jobs and Phoebe Philo. A boon when there aren’t enough hours in a day. You know what they say: when in doubt, wear black (sorry, beige).

Around the world in shades of beige

Bodice. Image: Sagar Ahuja

Leather and latte dresses, bread and butter. If anyone swears by this pairing, it’s Sonal Verma, who has culled out a niche for her tiered tan maxis and woven leather accessories. Her mood board: the glamping resorts of Africa. Ragini Ahuja of Ikai, another prime example of hazelnut tunics lined with luxurious leather that feel at home anywhere in the world, counts designer, textile revivalist and world explorer Ritu Kumar as her all-time client. “It’s the beauty of beige that allows interpretation,” says Verma. Whether it’s the mismatch of colour tones that create an interesting depth of look or adding on accessories from her travels (a necklace from Nigeria, a cuff from Croatia), it’s safe to say: “The woman who wears beige has truly arrived.”