April 2005
Curtains down on sixth Lakme India Fashion
Week
New Delhi:
Curtains came down on the Lakme India Fashion Week (LIFW),
India's biggest fashion extravaganza, on April 26 with flamboyant
designers Varun Bahl and Monisha Jaisingh taking on the peppermint
theme for a refreshingly colourful and lively collection.
Varun Bahl, who has worked with the top-notch players of the
field, from Giorgio Armani, Kenzo, Christian Lacroix and Dolce
& Gabbana, doled out pristine display of green chiffons, sequins
and layered skirts and flimsy tops line with his mint theme.
The 25-year-old, currently executing embroidery assignments
for Armani Collezioni and Emporio Armani, is planning to unveil
his own label in India soon. "My theme was peppermint and
I was essentially supposed to take part of the mint side of
it and I thought the best to go about it was (to) bring a
lot of freshness in it and I hope I have managed it," Bahl
said. Monisha Jaisingh, famous for her pret-a-porter collections,
unveiled the chic look with heavily embroidered trousers in
silks, denims and short tops and skirt in white and golden
which dominated her "modern women with an Indian soul" collection.
Jaisingh said her designs were all about pepper - complete
with its warmth and its nasty sting. "The colours got warmer
and we went into beige, coral and warm pinks. So basically
the entire collection is for a modern woman with Indian soul,"
she said.
India Fashion
Week is passionately devoted to the pret and couture lines
exhibiting the Indian heritage and embellishments. The week-long
show, running into its sixth year, showcased collections of
more than 60 designers, including 20 new ones, from across
the country. While the old timers made their presence felt,
punk men Shazad Kalim and Shantanu Goenka announced their
arrival. Kalim, a fashion graduate from Delhi, presented his
collection full of colours, cuts, flayers and drapes with
exquisite fabrics including chiffons, georgettes and cotton
silk. Living upto his name, veteran Tarun Tahiliani, first
Indian to be invited to the Milan fashion week, unveiled a
dazzling display of shimmering blues and browns, purples and
greens. A management graduate from the Wharton School of Business,
Tahiliani used jewellery and crystals to drape his models
-- ranging from veterans like Ford models Sheetal Malhar,
Vidisha Pavate to newcomers like Tapur Chatterjee and Shivani
Kapur. Tahiliani, considered probably India's most established
designer in terms of infrastructure and distribution, specialises
in Indo- western style, both pret and diffusion lines. The
second biggest showstopper at the event was the "bad boy"
of the fashion fraternity, Rohit Bal, who presented his "Sheen
Mubarak" collection. The Kashmiri sheen reflected the beauty
and vanity of the first snowfall of the season in the pristine
valley. The basic inspiration of the collection was the age-old
traditional work of "Wark ke Kaam", the real Silver and Gold
leaf painting. Bal's collection was a revival of an art form
that is more or less extinct. The fashion industry has lately
gained tremendous prominence not only in India but even abroad
and ranks among the high growth sectors like Information Technology.
Trade circles estimate the annual turnover of the composite
fashion industry to be about 600 million rupees (12.8 million
dollars).
-April 27, 2005
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