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Leather
Lady: Bright red pants, fuschia jackets...model Simar  Duggal
launched a zingy collection in leather at Delhi's fashion store Ogaan.
"No, I'm not quitting modelling," answered Duggal, and added,
"I've designed clothes I'd wear myself." The prices (Rs 20,000
for some jackets) didn't deter guests-Ogaan sold five, day one. Spotted
browsing were the American ambassador's wife, Jacqueline Lundquist (right
with Kavita Bhartiya), designer Ritu Kumar and photographer Sumiko Nanda.
-Leher
Kala
Raining
Sequins
They're
everywhere. Last year, sequins, crystal, beads, baubles and other do-dads
made their presence felt on clothes. This year they've moved to another
critical fashion area: accessories. On hairbands, hairclips, shoes, bags,
jewellery, it's raining sequins. "The look is sheer glamour and luxury,"
says India Style's Rohini Khosla who's sprinkled sequins on bags, stoles
and shoes. And Delhi-based designer Malini Ramani has even used sequins
on cushion covers. "To me sequins are like jewellery," she says.
Model-designer Ayesha Prem, who launched a line in sequinned bags and
belts five months ago, believes it's a new sense of daring that accounts
for their popularity. "People are certainly more adventurous now,"
says Prem. Most feel that sequins and glitter are here to stay, unlike
elsewhere in the world where they were a backlash to minimalism. "Anything
that has shine is going to be big this season," says stylist Ambika
Pillai. So if you haven't yet bought that sequinned underwear-go get it.
-Namita
Bhandare
Fabric
Feast
I can't talk. I need to calm down," twittered Magi Barazani amid
the backstage bustle at Delhi's Siri Fort Auditorium last week. She'd
just bagged the first prize at Design Ekko, the National Institute of
Fashion Technology's international design contest, beating 59 contestants
from nine countries. Barazani, an upcoming Israeli designer, made a mark
with her knitted garments. And though one contestant presented what can
only be described as a bookshelf-on-the-model's-back-and-his-foot-in-an-upturned-stool,
the rest steered clear of the bizarre. Says designer David Abraham, a
judge that evening: "The use of fabric and the manipulation of traditional
materials was interesting." Like third prize winner Sunil Sandeep's
silver grey dress in "lycra yarns interlaced with cotton-lycra blend
yarns" that appeared to have been woven on, not stitched on, to the
mannequin's body. Competition for Rohit Bal and gang?
-Anna
M.M. Vetticad
The Lens Lover: A scientist who dabbles
in photography? Canada-based Vinod Modi, 71, an authority on spacecraft
dynamics who has won many Kodak-sponsored contests, exhibited his pictures
in Mumbai. Titled 'This Moment Has Twenty One Days', they were shot in
Kharla, a village in Maharashtra Modi visited between conferences in Japan.
"I've tried to reflect the warmth and beauty I experienced in the
village," says Modi. Future plans? Back to work and more photography.
-Himanshi
Dhawan
more...
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INDIA TODAY Deputy Editor Swapan Dasgupta voices the despair of a community that Jyoti Basu forcibly converted into a diaspora in his 23 years of zero-contribution rule. 