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LIFESTYLE:
INDIA FASHION WEEK
Stylish
Start
Despite
all the bad blood, the bickerings and the goof-ups, the desi design brigade
makes an impressive maiden effort to tap the lucrative ready-to-wear market
By Anna
M. M. Vatticad with Leher Kala
Sidney
Sheldon would have loved It. The just-concluded Lakme India Fashion Week
in Delhi had all the spice of a pungent paperback: glamorous models, bare
devilry
on the catwalk, high-profile designers, retailers eyeing their wares,
socialites dressed to kill and pretty boys in their peacock best, not
to miss the open squabbles between participants in full view of the press.
But, "This is serious business," declares Sumeet Nair, spokesperson
for the Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI), organisers of India's
biggest ever fashion extravaganza.
 |
Tinsel
and Fiesta: A Tehiliani creation (left)
and a Manju and Bobby Grover outfit.
Photo: Hemant Chawla |
"This
is a trade fair, not a tamasha," insists Delhi couturier Tarun Tahiliani.
Well! well! We wouldn't have known that, would we? Still, it was a great
story to tell. Sheldon was not present, but Commonwealth Prize-winning
writer Vikram Chandra was floating around, clicking photographs, jotting
down notes and "soaking in the atmosphere for a future project ...
can't tell you what it is". He might just begin where Shobha De (who
was also present, but no, she didn't need to take notes) left off many
years ago.
The week drew to a close in a shower of silver confetti and barrels of,
not the bubbly, but plain ol' beer-Vijay Mallya's UB Group was, after
all, a contributor of sorts. Beneath the air-kissing bonhomie, Indian
designers are now divided into two distinct groups: those who participated
(TWP) and those who didn't (TWD). And while some of the TWDs may cry hoarse
about this being just a pr exercise, they couldn't deny the fact that
the TWPs had moved the fractious fashion "fraternity" up from
the page-three society columns of newspapers. "They've actually brought
fashion to the front page," chuckled L.V. Saptharishi of the National
Institute of Fashion Technology, a member of FDCI's board.
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The
Hiss
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| Sparks
flew when Delhi's Rohit Bal showered expletives more colourful than
his clothes on Mumbai's Sandeep Khosla, even calling him "a fat
f****** slob". Demanding an apology, Khosla threatened to quit
the newly founded fashion body. So far he hasn't. |
| Being
politically correct hadn't in vogue. At a "Say No to (Shah)Toosh"
seminar at the fashion week most designers were conspicuous by their
absence. |
| Peeved
by the special billing given to Tahiliaani, Raghavendra Rathore and
Wendell Rodricks, Mumbai's Krishna Mehta boycotted the ramp. |
| The
international models, barring Jodie Kidd, were a washout. "They
walked like zombies," said Monisha Bajaj. |
Silk, satin,
chiffon, flared skirts, skin-tight trousers, sheer dresses, chappals with
parrots on straps, sarongs (we don't call 'em lungis), even saris-exactly
1,536 outfits were paraded on the ramp as 32 designers unveiled their
ready-to-wear pret-a-porter to the initiated) collections over 23 shows.
So what if most of them were from Delhi ... a few from Calcutta, Bangalore,
Mumbai, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Jodhpur and Goa were also thrown in.
"We
knew we were going to have the baby, we just didn't know whether it would
have four toes or five," said designer Suneet Varma, giving vent
to his latent paternal instincts. Fresh from a spat with Rohit "Gudda"
Bal, designer Sandeep Khosla generously added: "Despite all our differences,
I would say this is a great start." Khosla and partner Abu Jani had
the good grace not to participate because they didn't have a line that
would fall in the Rs 800 to Rs 10,000 price limit specified for the week.
Can't say the same for everyone though. Meera and Muzaffar Ali decided
to show an elaborate collection of lehngas, salwar-kameezes and more that
drew smirks from many.
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The
stock markets are humming, and it's feel-good time once again, writes
INDIA TODAY Associate Editor V. Shankar Aiyar in 
