The Wills India Fashion Week in New Delhi has successfully ended in a more sizzling style for spring summer. It has all that glamour and glitz, demanded by London, Paris and New York fashion Weeks. More than 70 fashion designers from around the country participated in the Fashion Week showing their collections worn by 40 models. The Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week Spring-Summer Showcase is another ‘first’ by the FDCI which serves as a platform to promote ‘The Business of Fashion’ and facilitate interaction between designers and buyers in India and internationally.
This is the first time since its inception six years ago that the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week was presented on an international format to cover the two seasonal market segments – Autumn-Winter and Spring-Summer. As a result, close to 75 of India’s best designers were able to present their Spring-Summer Prêt and Diffusion collections to the most prominent names among buyers, media and fashionistas, both Indian and international. Clearly established as ‘Fashion’s Grandest Celebration’, Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week attracted buyers and media from all over the world. The event has served as a launch pad for some of the participating designers, who have been retailing very successfully through retail chains across the world like Be, Shoppers’ Stop, Kimaya, Pantaloon, Selfridges, Browns, Maria Luisa, Tsum, Harrodsand many more.
On the opening day of the event, Arjun Rampal made a cameo appearance at the Rohit Bal show. The first day of WLIFW featured collections from Manish Arora, Rohit Gandhi-Rahul Khanna, Jatin Kochhar and Rohit Bal. Jattin Kochhar’s collection titled ‘Swell Well’ is dedicated to the millions of mums-to-be in India and abroad. While his creations for the normal lady were basic in terms of colour, silhouettes and style, he brought in a sprinkling of men’s wear and swimwear for both sexes, aimed to give a complete prêt solution.
Rohit Bal did an about turn towards Nacre – Mother of Pearl with a hint of glint. Known for his brilliant texturing appliqué and tonal embroideries with basket weave events technique in fine thread work with pleating, pin tucking, layering, Rohit unleashed a line of stunning long coats, bumble skirts, textured ruffled jackets, long slender skirts, glamorous gowns, slender dresses all topped with jackets, caftans, shrugs, boleros. It was ultimate glamour of the Hollywood or shall we say Bollywood kind which came down the ramp for women’s wear.
Designers Swapan and Seema swept on to the ramp at the WLIFW with the Madame Butterfly collection for Spring-Summer 2007, where there was a blend of the east and west in their creative palettes. A wrap-around shirtwaist, pleated knee-length skirt with side slits, an ivory tonal embroidered mini and a jumpsuit in pale blue with smocked bodice completed the western segment. Known for their luxurious saris and bridal wear, the pair did not disappoint.
The grand finale at the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week had Bollywood’s fashion Badshah, Manish Malhotra presenting his creativity at his best for Spring-Summer 2007. Sensuality was the name of the collection and Manish had his favourite muse Urmila Mantondkar opening the show with a beige corset worn with a hipster shimmering long skirt. From swim bikinis to swimsuits and covers with ornate embroidery, Manish had them all. It was a mélange of colours that Manish worked with from beige, nude, white, red, blue, red, pink, green to combinations of all. The highlight of the show was the appearance of Bollywood super stars, Shahid Kapur in a smart suit and Kareena Kapoor in a dramatic black net gown.
The Ashish Soni collection for Spring-Summer 2007, inspired by Nokia’s Sirocco model, moved into the future with its unbelievable deconstructed garments and the stark black, white and mélange grey colour tones. Volume played an important part for Ashish as he opened the show with white voile with metallic pin embroidery for a multi gathered baby doll dress. The extra wide silhouette not only worked well for garments but was also visible for sleeves, boleros as well as skirts. The collection thrived on garment detailing with rolled sleeves, random pleating, stencil sprayed details and tucking for skirts and boleros which gave the garments a new dimension.
Men’s wear is Ashish’s forte and his jackets were simple offerings in cool wool. A black satin collared tuxedo jacket, a double collared single button jacket and a black Chinese collared Nehru jacket being rather special. The fabrics ranged from voile, viscose, silk taffeta, jacquard, canvas to cool wool.
With WIFW 2006, FDCI carries forward its vision of using this event as a platform for the overall development of the fashion design industry and the business of fashion. As part of this aim, a number of new initiatives have been launched, which have been very well received. FDCI has been consistently broadening the scope of the event to increase the involvement of key stakeholders since the event began in 2000.
