Chennai

Anti-ageing Tips : How To Slow Down Ageing

/ mythoughtlane / 5 Comments

Show your skin some love

If you are 25 and even an hour older, you need to read this article and start paying attention to skin care. Ageing of the skin takes baby steps and sets in at 25. Wait……no panic yet, but most people are unaware of this skin fact. They wait till the 30s to even start noticing changes in their skin. Having established this research backed fact, I wish to suggest small ways of slowing down ageing in a series of articles on anti-ageing. Very often, we get loaded with far too much information on such topics and tend to miss out or forget some tips. Hence, I am dealing with one important anti-ageing DIY tip in each article. Anti-ageing products and procedures are galore and using them is a personal choice, but there is something in our power even when adopting them that can help make the effort worthwhile and get better results.

How To Apply Serums And Creams The Right Way

I have seen many rub their skin while applying any topical solution. ‘That is a mistake‘ we have been told repeatedly, yet we forget the words of caution – rub and scrub, especially when we are in a hurry. Time to stop doing that folks. Time to pamper your skin the right way. Time to take anti-ageing into your hands !

  • Take the required quantity of the topical application you are using in your palm, or the back of your hand, be it a cleanser, a serum, a lotion or a cream.
  • Dip your fingertips into it and dab it on the surface of your skin. With gentle, upward strokes spread it all over your face or whichever part of the body you are applying it on. Now the natural tendency of many, is to rub it in, especially when they are in a hurry. Your skin may be crying for mercy, not to pull and push so much, to be treated with a little more care. So….
  • Slow down….instead, pat the product gently and repeatedly all over your face. Cup your face with your palms and gently act like you are pushing the product into your skin, till all of it is absorbed. Did you see some happy skin there? You just did some anti-ageing act! You showed your skin some love♥.

Watch this quick video on the technique by Chennai’s leading makeup artist Akriti Sachdev of Mesmereyes Makeup, created specially for My Thought Lane

Most Important : Serum, Under Eye Cream, Moisturizer and Sunscreen in that order. Apply your first topical application quickly after you tap dry your face and while the skin is still moist. It will help seal in the moisture in the epidermis (topmost layer of skin) and lend a soft glow to your face.

Why Pat And Not Rub :

While those in their late 20s can still take it easy, once the 30s set in skin starts losing its firmness, tone and elasticity.  Very fine lines make their appearance giving you an indication that skin is losing its toning and you better wake up to it. With natural ageing and the aggression of external factors like the sun and the weather, collagen and elastin production in the skin (the backbone of a firm skin) slows down, resulting in loss of firmness. And do not forget that gravity never fights shy of doing it s job ! Added to all of this, if you were to rub or pull your skin, you are playing host to sagging skin for sure. Think anti-ageing ! Even if you were to sweat like a pig during, or after your walks and workouts, still pat your face with a soft napkin and never rub.

Why Pat Or Tap Cream Into The Skin:

We all of course know that ageing alters blood circulation within the body. Poor blood supply means lesser oxygen. Patting and tapping can alleviate that to some extent by increasing blood circulation to those areas, thereby lending better health to your skin.

Not fair that the first signs of ageing appear on that part of the body that we treasure most, the face. Even more unfair that the best part of our face, the eyes take the brunt of ageing first. We cannot fight nature, but we certainly can take anti-ageing into our own hands and slow it down.

Do You Believe In The Healing Power Of Your Hands ?

Adding a layer here to the benefits of patting the product into your skin : Three or four days into this practice, I realised I was feeling good and revelled in the way my skin responded to my hands, with all the patting and tapping. My skin appeared a tad plumped, probably from the pampering it received. Yes, when someone feels loved, they glow ! Go ahead, you try this out too, accept your skin and love it. I would call this anti-ageing at a higher plane.

The contour of the eye has lesser amount of collagen, elastin and lipids and ages faster than the rest of the face. The skin and muscles around the eyes are fragile, it is made so because it does the most muscular work – 10,000 blinks per day !! Had there been tougher skin and muscle, so many blinks would have been an impossibility leading to other eye related issues. If that’s how nature meant it to be, it has also taught us that there is something we can do to slow down the ageing.

Improve blood circulation like we said above.

  • Apply your serum, cream or lotion with your ring finger or the little finger and tap lightly along the eye contour.
  • Press EVER SO GENTLY till the topical application gets absorbed into the skin.
  • Continue tapping lightly on the eye-socket area, along the cheekbone and extend it to the eyebrow bone in a gentle circle.
  • Always from the outer corner of the eye to the inner.

The blood circulation tip given by Dr Vidya Ram Pradeep of Krishna’s Skin Cosmetology & Medical Centre, Chennai is something that we can all practice everyday and anytime of the day. To keep a radiant skin, not just  the under eye area but the rest of the face too.

Do not forget your neck, decolletage and palms, they show signs of ageing next only to the under eye area. Treat them to a gentle application of your serum, or cream and pat and tap like you would your face.

Apply the same technique if you are going to be pampering the rest of your body with oils, creams, or lotions.

Anti-ageing In The Shower

pat dont rub skin mantra

The skin-mantra

 

Oh yes, anti-ageing has become a part of your life now. So, while you cleanse your face with a face wash and your body with a shower gel, use circular motions for application and once you are rinsed, remember to pat yourself dry all over with a soft absorbent towel. If you are one of those that cannot do without rubbing yourself dry (it’s just a habit, you can grow out of it) or are in a rush, just remember to run your towel ever so gently in upward strokes and never down. We are not lending a hand to gravity in letting our skin sag !

Additional tip : Apply your face wash on wet skin gently and in circular motions, massage your skin (without rubbing) with the product for 10 secs or more. Give the product enough time to work on your skin and do its job. Opt for a pharmaceutical product that suits your skin, consult a dermatologist. If you are looking for a good face wash, refer to my earlier post on Glogeous Advanced Face Wash Gel

Video Credits : Thank you Akriti Sachdev

There is beauty in wellness and ageing gracefully with minimum damage to the skin requires an effort, the results of which will stay with you much into older years. So lets make anti-ageing and slowing it down fun. So feedback time, like it if you did and share a view or two.

Ciao till the next anti-ageing tip…….

Sous Vide Cooking Is Futuristic

/ mythoughtlane / 2 Comments

I was not a foodie nor a fitness enthusiast once upon a time. I didn’t watch what I ate and I hardly exercised. I had gotten lucky with genes that had gifted me a high metabolic rate. But, pregnancy and childbirth changed all of that. Knocking off post pregnancy weight became a daunting task, but I quickly learnt to eat right and workout hard, kind of fast and furious!

I have come a long way since then and so has my love for a healthy and fit body. I fell in love with mediterranean cuisine, replete with fruits and vegetables. I now don the chef cap often at home, but the focus is on healthy, wholesome yet low calorie food.

I had thoroughly enjoyed watching John Wells movie “BURNT” starring the brilliant Bradley Cooper and was in complete awe of the kitchen scenes. As serendipity would have it I dined at Novella, the rooftop poolside restaurant in Hablis Hotels that serves European fusion food the very next day. The Head Chef walked to our table to chat us up in ‘that’ inimitable way and he turned out to be a product of the Michelin Star hotel in London. I was fascinated! To appease my curiosity, Chef Sathya (CS) took me over to the cooking counters and pointed to a compact machine which bubbled with water and some food packets. “So that is the secret of the fine food you just tasted, its called sous-vide cooking”, he said.

sous vide equipment

Sous-vide apparatus

I found it so interesting, I had to write about it. So here goes…….

Me : Tell me what is this sous-vide cooking all about.

CS : Sous-vide literally means ‘under vacuum’ in French. It is a method of cooking wherein food is sealed in air-tight plastic bags and placed in a temperature controlled water bath, or a steam environment. The temperatures set in this method are generally much lower than normal cooking, typically around 55-60° C (131-140° F) for meat, and higher for vegetables.

Me : What is the advantage of this method of cooking?

CS : It ensures that the insides as well as the outer layers of the food are uniformly cooked and retain moisture.

Me : So, no water is used to cook the food?

CS : Yes, sealing the food in air-tight plastic bags retains the juices and the aroma that otherwise would get lost in the process. Every food has a certain desired final cooking temperature. So by setting that temperature we avoid over-cooking, because the food cannot get hotter than the bath it is in. With proper setting of time and temperature, even irregularly shaped or thick items get cooked uniformly.

Me : Why is temperature control so important?

CS : Because lower temperatures result in much higher succulence. Unlike food cooked on high temperatures, sous-vide cooking method does not allow cell walls in the food to burst. Meats do not lose their moisture and vegetables while being cooked just right (and pasteurised too) attain a somewhat firm and crisp texture. Besides, the spices and ingredients added and enclosed  within the bag transfer their flavour directly to the item being cooked.

There are three simple steps to cook the sous-vide way:

  1. Season the food with your favourite herbs and spices
  2. Vacuum seal the food in a food grade plastic pouch
  3. Drop the pouch in the water bath with the set temperature and walk away to attend to other jobs.

Me : All this sounds too cool. So is this the best method to cook then?

CS : There is only one limitation, that of browning. Since the flavour or the texture achieved by the browning of the food cannot be obtained with the sous-vide cooking technique, we do it before or after placing it in the water bath, by a simple ‘searing’ that gives us the best of both the worlds.

Me : How safe is food cooked this way? What about using the plastic bags?

CS : It is perfectly safe to eat food cooked the sous-vide way, because time and temperature compliment each other in rendering it safe. However, people prescribed pasteurised food can avoid it.

Food grade plastic, polyethylene is used to prepare these specially formulated bags, hence no cause for concern.

Salmon with crushed pepper in the cooking pouch
Salmon with crushed pepper, thyme, rosemary, salt and olive oil

Now for some vegetables………

IMG_5209

Vegetables ready to be cooked the sous-vide way

Me : So is this method of cooking only for restaurants or can we use it for domestic cooking too?

CS : Sous-vide cooking technique is used in many high-end gourmet restaurants by master chefs all over the world. Amtrack, the popular American passenger rail-road service uses this method for meals served on their trains. Sous-vide cooking has taken cooking shows on television by storm. Non-professional cooks have started using this method too because it is hassle free. In our restaurant kitchens, we use the most superior sous-vide equipment, but less expensive ones are being made available for domestic cooking in the last few years.

Sir Benjamin Thompson first introduced this technique as long back as 1799 and since then has gone through a lot of improvements to make it the technique it is today.

Me : What kind of foods can you cook sous vide?

CS : All kinds actually! Meats like beef, pork, lamb, chicken, or poultry. Fish and sea-food are best cooked the sous-vide way as there is no fear of over-cooking. Almost all kinds of vegetables and fruits cooked this way yield delicious results. You can even make custard-style ice cream base, béarnaise sauce, crème anglaise, custards, cheese, yogurt, beer, and some cakes. Just about anything that requires a precise temperature to cook properly can be a candidate for sous vide cooking.

Slow poached salmon
Braised leg of the lamb

 

A few basic food safety tips :

Whether cooking sous vide or with other techniques, it is best to follow these practices :

  • Make sure food is fresh, of high quality and thoroughly cleaned.
  • Don’t cross contaminate – use separate cutting boards and storage units for different food, such as vegetables, fish, fruit, poultry, and meat.
  • Cook all food properly. Most bacteria are killed at 130F/54.5C, and most sous vide cooking temperatures are higher than that, but it’s a matter of both temperature and time as mentioned earlier.
  • Serve food right away or follow proper storage and chilling practices, so that you do not leave food out at unsafe temperatures for more than an hour.

For additional food safety and handling tips, we recommend visiting an approved food safety site such as www.foodsafety.gov, www.foodsafety.org or www.fda.gov

And here is a site to find sous-vide recipes : Anova .

My main course had arrived at my table and we walked back. Chef Sathya pointed out to the braised lamb on my plate and said meats from sous-vide cooking always emerged more pink and juicier. And he added, “when cooking sous vide, most foods will taste just as good even if they spend a few extra minutes at a target temperature, letting you relax and attend to the more interesting and creative aspects of cooking. A final important benefit is that the closed bag creates a fully humid environment that effectively braises the food, so ingredients cooked this way are often noticeably juicier and tender”.

He took leave of us with a promise of putting together a sous-vide workshop soon if we could form a group and give him a date. So, if you are from Chennai and are keen on familiarising yourself with sous-vide method of cooking or dining at their fine-dining rooftop restaurant, you can contact :

Address

Hablis Hotels, 19 GST Road, Guindy, Chennai 600032. Tel : +91 4023 5555

 

Dear World, Please Pray For Chennai, We Are Flood Ravaged

/ mythoughtlane / 3 Comments

My lovely city Chennai and its neighbouring towns, battered by rains like never before. We have been brought down to our knees, by the fury of Nature! Thousands rendered homeless, hundreds of deaths, painful loss of property and business due to unrelenting rain since December 1.

I shall refrain from giving statistics or posting pictures, there is Google for that. I am praying and I want all of you to pray for my city and its neighbourhood as I hear there is more impending rain. Please pray that we are spared the aftermath of epidemics that is looming large in our faces. Our city of 7 million is sub-merged.

We, Chennai-earlier-called-Madras, are at 13.04°N 80.17°E on the southeast coast of India and in the northeast corner of Tamil Nadu, on a flat coastal plain known as the Eastern Coastal Plains. We stand at an average elevation of 6 metres (20 ft), the highest point being 60 m (200 ft).

We are a peace-loving people. We are highly spiritual. We are culturally rich and knowledge-hungry. We are a tolerant state. We are much less communal, rather hardly. We are givers, yet being punished for something we cant figure out.

Our city stands devastated, but our spirit remains unhindered. Rains have lashed cruelly, wiped away peoples’ homes and belongings, forcing inmates to move to higher floors of apartments and some on to the terraces. Rich nor poor, young nor old have been spared. Open terraces, wet and cold have been the only shelter to some, till being rescued by The National Disaster Rescue Force and citizens alike. Some of us have learnt to live without electricity, wi-fi, water and cellular networks for close to 96 hours, marooned and distraught with meagre food supplies. Reservoirs have brimmed over and rivers have swelled, nay, have taken over the city. There are no roads left in some parts of the city, they have been converted to waterways. We taxied our people to safety in boats, but we did not lose our sense of humour amidst the adversity. We likened our city to Venice and took pictures. Our airport has remained shut from December 2 till a few hours ago. Our railway tracks have remain hidden. We hope to bring them back to normalcy soon.

But we are resilient, true to the spirit we are known for. We will bounce back. Our people have risen to the occasion with single minded focus of rehabilitating those who have lost a roof over their heads. We have opened our homes to shelter the homeless. I am not even bringing in religion here, for at times such as these, we know only one religion, that of humanity. Our shopping malls and cinema halls suspended their shows for a while and made room for the cold and shivering to spend the night. So did the places of worship of every faith. Our citizens have strengthened the hands of the state machinery in relief work like nowhere else. The rains have been truly merciless, a situation no government can probably deal with all by itself. No government, no state could have been equipped to handle a calamity of this magnitude. But we stand united. Our volunteers for relief work round the clock are our warriors, they are young, very young, they are old, very old, but have come out in numbers that are overwhelming. Relief materials have poured in generously, from neighbouring states too, but is it enough? The task ahead is herculean. That of providing home and work to those that have lost all. That of cleaning up the city and restoring it to its glory.

But what hurts us most is that the rain clouds still seem to be intent on pouring themselves out on our city! Why do you hover so menacingly over our heads? Please leave, dissipate. I am not asking you to move elsewhere, but just dissolve into nothingness. There has been enough destruction, spare us from more. Allow us to rebuild and rehabilitate. Give us some sunshine, give us hope, give us strength.

Beaded and Crystal Cocktail Jewellery , a fashion statement

/ mythoughtlane / Leave a comment

LUX 214 , a rage in Beaded , Crystal Jewellery

Frankly , it’s the age of cocktail or  fashion and costume jewellery and who is behind it all ? Don’t you think its being largely driven by the apparel industry ? I mean , look at the zillion styles of clothing. We need accessories to go with them. There aren’t many rules in fashion any more. Mix , match and more mix n match. Its bonanza for the accessories industry too ! And we are not complaining ! Check out these eye-catching cocktail necklaces.

 

The less is more concept is working wonders in the fashion industry. Volumes have the biggest say and volumes are driven by pricing. So , we , consumers get to buy more , wear more. The keepsake or the collectible jewellery , the real fine precious jewellery is living up to its terminology and is being relegated to safe corners more and more. Else , we , fashionistas would have little jewellery to go with our expanding wardrobes.

 

Fashion/Costume jewellery came into being in the 1930s as an inexpensive , disposable accessory meant to be paired with specific styles and since then has gone on to sweep the imaginations of designers and consumers alike. Then came the machine-age , the Industrial Revolution and the timing was perfect ! Making mass-produced jewellery affordable and stylish , precious gold-silver and gemstones making way for the more affordable metals and synthetic stones. That is not to gainsay heirloom pieces , but how often does one wear them these days ?

 

While the feel of precious jewellery is unsurpassed , yet , kudos to the fashion-jewellery designers ! They make us feel adequate and often indulgent. And Indians love jewellery anyway. There is something else that we love more and emulate. Films ! While Hollywood influenced the rest of the world , our Hindi film industry fuelled the nouveau fashionistas’ urge to flaunt elaborate fashion jewellery akin to those worn by our sensuous heroines.

 

And we got more styles , more jewellery to choose from , from all over the world. Here are a few stunning pieces of cocktail/fashion/costume jewellery.

Fashion/costume/cocktail jewellery will only continue to get better and redefined in many more ways. LUX214 has plans to expand their jewellery section to making it an exclusive boutique for fashion/costume accessories.

Meet the Entrepreneur

Lux

 

@ LUX 214 , 214 TTK Road , Alwarpet , Chennai 600018 , Tamil Nadu , India.

Tel : +91 44 43132255

More trends coming soon . We look forward to your comments and feedback.​

Tell us what you think , we are eager to hear.

 

 

 

 

 

Mural Art , Mural Aura – the beauty of Kerala

/ mythoughtlane / 2 Comments

God’s own country is how Kerala , the state at the southern tip ( south-west ) of India is referred to very often. It’s also called the land of temples and churches. Lapped in verdant surroundings , I guess the state of Kerala offers serenity , the much-needed attribute for spirituality. It’s also the land of colours if you go by the Kerala mural art , so typical of the state.

Kerala mural paintings are frescos that depict mythology and some legendary heroes of the bygone era. The art dates back to the 9th – 12th century CE , originating in the temples , churches and palaces of Kerala , sometimes being referred to as temple art too . Mural art was expensive , as you will see later , and hence the patrons of the art were predominantly kings.

Mural art by Mural Aura

Mural art by Mural Aura

Patronised by the royalty , the art most naturally found its roots in subjects connected to religion and spirituality. Art of that era had no place for conflicts and causes , unlike today. So , the walls of palaces and places of worship became the canvas for mural art. The common man , like you or me , was far removed from owning the murals then , due to their high cost … and we shall see why !

Creating murals was and is time-consuming and laborious. Small changes have been made to suit today’s times in the process of mural art ; we’ll get to that in a bit. Back in history , the artists were mandated to follow certain religious customs before taking up the painting and conform to them till completion , as the subject of the art was primarily the gods.

The Wall had to be prepared

The wall was first coated with an admixture of powdered limestone , sand and gallnut soaked in water. Upon drying , a second coat of limestone mixed with sand , this time a finer mix , was smeared..Not done yet , a third coat would follow , this time around , a medley of finely powdered limestone with tender coconut water. The latter was applied twenty-seven times in between the drying. The wall would then be left to dry completely for thirty days , after which the artist could take up his brush and palette.

The Brush

Just writing about it is tiring me out ! Its made of arrow grass. A bunch of arrow grass , tied and covered with banana leaf was cooked in buffalo milk. The finely cooked grass was then tied to the tips of bamboo sticks ( wonder how they handled cooked grass ). The tips of such a bunch of arrow grass were then shaped to form brushes . Whew !

The Colours

The medium for painting ( colours ) were pigments procured from natural sources. Just five colours called ‘panchavarna’ go into mural paintings even today , though the present generation of artists have resorted to acrylic colours , simply due to the astronomical costs of procuring natural extracts for the hues.

  • Yellow ocher and red ocher obtained from a type of mineral earth oxide , ‘Vettukallu’ , found mostly in North Kerala.
  • Green obtained from the leaves of a plant called ‘Indigofera’.
  • Blue obtained from the lazurite mineral ‘Katta Neelam’.
  • Black obtained from the lamp black , soot.
  • For white , the background is left untouched.

Mural art employs the science and psychology of colours in its choice to depict characters and moods.

  1. Green and blue to denote purity or divinity.
  2. Yellow and red for valour and passion and
  3. Black for impurity and sin.

FYI : The above three traits are classified into three attributes , ‘gunas ’ as laid down by the Hindu scriptures in that order : Satvik , Rajasik and Tamasik.

The Process

The hallmark of a Kerala mural painting is the detailing and shading that go into it. Every square inch of the painting is painstakingly detailed by the artist , evident in the blending of the colours , the fine grading of the shades ( remember the five colours only ? ) , the intricate lines that define the curves of the characters in the painting and the light of play subtly brought out by the shading. All characters are curvaceous and well-proportioned. Some lines are created by joining tiny dots in close succession. I have been privy to this and its truly back-breaking !

Mural Art from Kerala is distinguished by its emphasis on and strict adherence to beauty , clarity and symmetry , not found in any other form of mural art around the world. Have you seen ‘evil’ made to look beautiful ? You can see it here in this art. Evil not glorified , but beautified in keeping with the essence of the art. A demon is also painted in as great a detail as a god ! The quality of being evil is portrayed in the act being painted , never in the demeanour of the character , maybe just a hint of it.

Proportion and pose are two other mandates for this type of mural art. Every part of the body of the characters in the painting must adhere to proportions laid down for the art. For instance , the neck is to be one-fourth of the face and so on. The same rule goes for depicting markets , animals , buildings etc.

So much hard work and so much time go into creating mural art even today. The artists of today have innovated and simplified it in various levels. Canvasses for the present crop of artists range from fabric to wood and the good old canvas. There are no more kings , there is not so much space. Some have embraced synthetic colours and brushes. The natural pigments do not have shelf life and there are no more makers of those arrow grass brushes !

‘Mural Aura’ , a family enterprise at Chennai has hugely popularized Kerala mural paintings in the city , elsewhere in India as well as countries abroad. Two women , a mother , Malathy Lakshman , the artist , her daughter , Chandra Lakshman  and her father , Lakshman Kumar came together to showcase the beauty of the art in all its finery. Chandra is an actor and a designer who adds creative inputs to the enterprise.

Mural Aura coasters Kathakali faces

Mural Aura coasters with Kathakali faces

Mural Aura foyer tablwe Aswamedha theme

Mural Aura foyer table with Aswamedha theme

Mural Aura buddy stools

Mural Aura buddy stools

Foyer tables , buddy stools , trays , coasters , lamp shades and wall hangings designed by Lakshman Kumar with stunning mural imagery are only a part of their product range.

Saree Mural Aura's mural art

Saree with Mural Aura‘s mural art

You want a hand-painted Krishna with a flute on your shirt ? Swan and peacock motifs on borders of a saree ? A mythological story on the pallu ? Mural Aura will love to do it all , merging art and fashion aesthetically. On silk and cotton only. Some of their customers not content with wearing the art on their bodies , spend time learning from them how to paint murals , so there goes training , another feather in their cap.

The Artists

Mural Aura

#73 Venkatakrishna Road
Raja Annamalai Puram
Chennai – 600028

Tamil Nadu , India
Tel : +91 95000 44334 / +91 95000 55715

Some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot , others transform a yellow spot into the sun. – Pablo Picasso.

Mural Aura will transform the dullest of spaces into vibrant energy zones with their work. Respect for the creative trio !

Haute Arts – My Wall is My Story

/ mythoughtlane / 7 Comments

In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Wall.”

The Significant Wall tells our story

A wall that tells the story of a business , their vision and their commitment to environment by Haute Arts.

Haute Arts Mural Wall

Haute Arts Wall Mural

A work of art on the wall of a business-house , created and illustrated aesthetically and convincingly by the artistic couple-team Amrithaa and Subash for their client Vijay Associates in Chennai , India , who are builders of luxury apartments.

The story : Sun depicts prosperity , the tree of life stands for their commitment to ecology , the skyline in the background signifying growth and the stairs for achievement.

Amrithaa and Subash encourage local artisans , giving them a means of employment and empowerment. A great step in todays times when most commercial art is digitized and  ‘synthetic’ is sought after for reasons of cost and time. I could say they are Chennai’s claim to originality and exclusivity in art – indoor and outdoor.

They are my dear , dear friends and it was sheer coincidence that I chanced upon their art from Haute Arts , just in time for the Daily Post’s prompt : Wall.

LUX 214

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Crop tops with Skirt – Summer – Spring Fashion.

I like this girl’s keen sense of fashion and her eye for details. And I like her line of clothing , LUX 214. I like her grit , her determination. Lux has brought in a lot of fashion to Chennai and is a name all fashionistas like to quote in haute couture circles. She has an eye for spotting stylish wear and sources out the best of them. Lux sports style herself and true to the stylist in her , has helped many a woman reinvent her wardrobe. Sometimes bold!

We chose crop tops with skirts this week. Click here : Crop tops  to see 25 ways of wearing crop tops. They are just catching up in Chennai and no better time than summer to flaunt them.

Chic


Announce Spring / Summer with this floral print ankle length skirt teamed with a smart yellow crop top.

A dash of green complimenting the pearls at the neck to make it perfect party wear.

A dash of green and pearls complimenting the crop top to make it perfect party wear.

Its all about summer now and in this tropical weather , what better than white to stay cool ! Sporting this skirt , colourful , yet with a pastel base along with the hip white crop top would make a statement

LUX 214

Summery white crop top and pastel floral skirt

 

Sprinkled with blues and whites at the neck , its all set for a lunch date or a Sangeet at a wedding.

LUX 214

Blue n white neckpiece for the pristine white crop top

 

Now this is my favourite. Elegant , cool and hip , the white bands adding drama and the little bow a little flirtatious. A given for a romantic candlelit evening and yes I would like to listen to Jazz in the mood that this outfit has created.

black white elegane

Elegance in beige and a black-white crop top

We love the Indian touch in styles from the West , making them at once more vibrant and sensuous. India is a land of myriad hues , of diversity not seen in any other land , of festivals and celebration round the year. Little surprise then that we keep reinventing fashion to pamper our folks.

Meet the entrepreneur

Lux

@ LUX 214 , 214 TTK Road , Alwarpet , Chennai 600018 , Tamil Nadu , India.

Tel : +91 44 43132255

More trends next week. We look forward to your comments and feedback.​