India fashion week, 2001 unfolds in Mumbai
The much-hyped event in the city --the India Fashion Week--on Monday, 6th August, 2001unfolded as lissome young models walked down the ramp showcasing some of the most trendiest designer wear on the fashion scene.

The event, organised by the Fashion Design Council of India and aimed at promoting fashion as serious business, saw some of the exclusive collections of Mumbai's top designers, including Aki Narula and Sviojon, being exhibited during the well-choreographed fashion shows.

The event also saw some of Mumbai's well known models, showcasing the work and style of eminent hair stylists and skin experts. A special skin care symposium addressed by dermatologist Dr S Rekha tackled a host of skin and hair problems faced by youngsters.

The fashion shows kickstarted as the shimmering arc lights highlighted the creative work on fabric, which carried the impression and the inimitable style of the designer. The Taj, the venue for the event, turned into a riot of colours as hour-glass figures sashaayed down displaying the work of the young designers, who have unleashed their fantasy on clothes.

"Last year we were just trying to establish the event. This year, however, the focus is going to be proper business," says Sumeet. "More than an extravaganza and an extended party, India Fashion Week this time round is going to have the character of a serious designer-buyer meet. And it's not just the international buyers that we are inviting or targeting. We are going to have domestic retailers, wholesalers, agents and other people in the trade, as integral part of the invitee list. The whole idea is to have the business rolling and what better place to do serious business than in Mumbai."

Clearly, the ORG-Marg study, which is has completed its first two phases and is now in the last one, has been an eye-opener for FDCI. "The whole concept of organizing a study was to identify a set of retailers who can actually sell designer ready-to-wear garments, create distribution network, understand their requirements and, most importantly, to break the perception that designer wear is expensive and unaffordable. These are some of the aims that IFW attempts to achieve and we are in the process of devising ways we can achieve them," says Sumeet.

Unlike last year, FDCI has received a positive response from the Mumbai designers. "It's a myth that fashion industry is concentrated in Delhi. The city, of course, has the maximum number of designers, but Mumbai, Kolkata and Bangalore have fair amount of talented designers too. Fashion week is not going to travel to a new city every year. What we are looking at is maximum business prospects. So whichever city offers that, fashion week will be held there every year. Right now we are just in the process of exploring possibilities," says Sumeet.

The fashion week, is presenting the works of 44 designers during the 27 fashion shows, includes the work of noted designers, Sangeeta Chopra, Rohit Bal, Malini Ramani, Manish Malhotra, Tarun Tahiliani and Ritu Kumar.

The shows choreographed by Achla Sachdev, Lubna Adams, Aparna Bahl, Tanya Lefebvre, Asha Kochhar and Vidyun Singh would specially focus on two exclusive lines of ready-to-wear garments, diffusion and pret-a-porter.

Designers continue to sashay their creations for the ongoing India Fashion Week.

(ANI, AUGUST 9, 2001) The ongoing India Fashion Week is presenting itself as one concentrating on the business of the trade.

The event, organised by the Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI) aimed at promoting fashion as serious business, saw some of the exclusive collections of India's top designers, including Aki Narula, Ritu Kumar, Tarun Tahiliani, Rohit Bal, Anshu Arora Sen and many others.

Apache Indian, who shot to fame with his hit single, `Arrange Marriage' also performed during a show.

Commenting on the show, Apache India aka Steven Kapoor said, "I am here to promote my album `Karma'. I have never performed in a fashion show earlier. But I really enjoyed it."

Let's take a look at what happens behind the scenes at the second Lakme IndiaFashion Week.

Fashion, as commonly believed, is not all about glamour. Behind the glitz and the gloss, lies the hard work of countless people. Starting from the set designers who create the mood of the show to the countless technicians and help hands who build this vision.

Slinky silhouettes sashaying down ramps is what fashion shows are all about...these moves may look simple but don't come easy. Hours of rehersals make these turns and twirls perfect. And Fashion choreographers may not make models dance to their tunes but surely make them walk to their tunes.

The music does the talking for the clothes presented by the desiners. An intrinscic part of fashion shows, varied music are played to set the mood for different types of clothes. Even make up plays an important role in the look of the garments in their entirety. Spunky hairstyles, and matching make up bring out the true essence of the attitude of a the wearers of the clothes. Almost halfway into the India Fashion Week and after more than a dozen fashion shows, the event seems to be bringing the business it was expected to get for the designers. This may bring the much needed encouragement to the fashion industry in India, still in it's adolence. Critics used to scoff at the fashion community saying it was not an industry where Indian retailers don't even understand the fashion business. But this hasn't taken away the attention that the second India Fashion week is drawing. With fourty four designers, numerous models and buyers from all over the world under one roof, the excitement simmering till now will come to boil when the Lakme Final Show happens on the last day.