And so, yet another edition of the Lakme Fashion Week (summer resort collections) concluded last week in Mumbai (March 2011). And yet again, sundry people were groveling for passes for the shows, flaunting their Sunday best (of the worst), net-working like Mark Zuckerberg could never imagine and striking a pose every time a flash-bulb popped.
If it all sounds a bit too sordid.....IT IS...!!!
However, what really stood out this season was the lack of quality wear that one saw on the ramp. For an international event of this scale, the designs one saw and the styling one was subjected to was appalling.
Fabulous designers like Swapnil Shinde and Raakesh Aggarvwal stayed away - the former having backed out a day before his showing, citing "personal family matters" as his excuse. While others like Little Shilpa, held her usual showing, her presentation was a huge let-down as she had only one spotlight on the ramp. So except for the people in the front and second rows, nobody else could make out what headgear and jewelry she had designed.
When we questioned the surprising lack of lighting at her show, the pint-size poppet told us that the focus was meant to be more on the AV that was playing in the background.
Obviously, Shilpa - Little or not - had no regard for the guests who had come in from all parts of Mumbai and the world to see her show. If she wanted to concentrate on making a statement with her AV instead of what was on the ramp, she could have easily put it on youtube or her facebook page for all to see, rather than have them waste time and brave the summer heat and traffic to see her show.
Another show that had me scratching my head in wonder was Manish Malhotra's. While the theme of the season was meant to be Summer-Resort, Malhotra displayed an elaborate line of men's ethnic wear and chikankari wear for women that had nothing to do with "resort" and if you really pushed the envelope, very little to do with summer.
And if you were there to spot Bollywood stars on the ramp or off it, this year you would have been rather disappointed. Amongst the A-list superstars, except for Kareena Kapoor sitting in the front row for Manish Malhotra and SriDevi at Babita Malkani's show, star-power this season was on a low ebb.
Also spotted were Sonali Bendra at the Siddharth Tytler show, Urmila Matondkar, JuhiChawla and Purab Kohli at Anita Dongre's show, Jaqueline Fernandez at Masaba Gupta's show and Minnisha Lamba in a black and white slinky dress.
On the ramp, it was Kunal Kapoor who walked the ramp for Energie, Zayed Khan & Dia Mirza walked for Cantabil (styled by Rocky S), Sarah Jane Dias (is she a show-stopping celebrity) for Satya Paul, Riya Sen for Arpan Vohra and Geeta Basra for Pravesh & Jai.
However, stellar names like Amitabh & Jaya Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Sushmita Sen and others were conspicuous by their absence this season.
Has Lakme Fashion Week lost its charm with the multitude of fashion weeks that keep happening all over the country? Are the designers disillusioned? Is it lack-luster because of the lack of stringent quality controls??
Any answers....????
If it all sounds a bit too sordid.....IT IS...!!!
However, what really stood out this season was the lack of quality wear that one saw on the ramp. For an international event of this scale, the designs one saw and the styling one was subjected to was appalling.
Fabulous designers like Swapnil Shinde and Raakesh Aggarvwal stayed away - the former having backed out a day before his showing, citing "personal family matters" as his excuse. While others like Little Shilpa, held her usual showing, her presentation was a huge let-down as she had only one spotlight on the ramp. So except for the people in the front and second rows, nobody else could make out what headgear and jewelry she had designed.
When we questioned the surprising lack of lighting at her show, the pint-size poppet told us that the focus was meant to be more on the AV that was playing in the background.
Obviously, Shilpa - Little or not - had no regard for the guests who had come in from all parts of Mumbai and the world to see her show. If she wanted to concentrate on making a statement with her AV instead of what was on the ramp, she could have easily put it on youtube or her facebook page for all to see, rather than have them waste time and brave the summer heat and traffic to see her show.
Another show that had me scratching my head in wonder was Manish Malhotra's. While the theme of the season was meant to be Summer-Resort, Malhotra displayed an elaborate line of men's ethnic wear and chikankari wear for women that had nothing to do with "resort" and if you really pushed the envelope, very little to do with summer.
And if you were there to spot Bollywood stars on the ramp or off it, this year you would have been rather disappointed. Amongst the A-list superstars, except for Kareena Kapoor sitting in the front row for Manish Malhotra and SriDevi at Babita Malkani's show, star-power this season was on a low ebb.
Also spotted were Sonali Bendra at the Siddharth Tytler show, Urmila Matondkar, JuhiChawla and Purab Kohli at Anita Dongre's show, Jaqueline Fernandez at Masaba Gupta's show and Minnisha Lamba in a black and white slinky dress.
On the ramp, it was Kunal Kapoor who walked the ramp for Energie, Zayed Khan & Dia Mirza walked for Cantabil (styled by Rocky S), Sarah Jane Dias (is she a show-stopping celebrity) for Satya Paul, Riya Sen for Arpan Vohra and Geeta Basra for Pravesh & Jai.
However, stellar names like Amitabh & Jaya Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Sushmita Sen and others were conspicuous by their absence this season.
Has Lakme Fashion Week lost its charm with the multitude of fashion weeks that keep happening all over the country? Are the designers disillusioned? Is it lack-luster because of the lack of stringent quality controls??
Any answers....????
