Designer Roy and Ben Vereen win at Bollywood awards

NEW YORK, July 30 (Reuters) Rising designer Rachel Roy and veteran song-and-dance man Ben Vereen won top honors at a colorful and lively presentation of the 2006 Bollywood Fashion Awards.

Presenting Roy with the award for outstanding contribution to American fashion yesterday, supermodel Iman saluted Roy's ''elegant and alluring line of clothing for the modern working woman.'' ''I'm so honoured that my first award in fashion is from this community,'' said Roy, the wife of hip-hop mogul Damon Dash who is known for dressing Hollywood stars such as Lindsay Lohan and Halle Berry.

The Bollywood Fashion Awards, which are associated with a host of relatively recent prizes for India's burgeoning film and entertainment industry such as the Bollywood Film Awards and the Bollywood Music Awards, were handed out at a vibrant show at Manhattan's legendary Roseland Ballroom.

Tony award winner Ben Vereen, an actor and singer known to television audiences for playing ''Chicken George'' in the miniseries ''Roots,'' was given the Sammy Davis Jr Award, in recognition of a winning combination of style and talent that helps meld the entertainment and fashion worlds.

Davis' widow Altovise presented the award to Vereen, who said ''I've never been to Bollywood (India's film capital Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay), but you know something, I'm gonna' be there now.'' Reflecting on the evening's featured fashions, Vereen enthused ''the designs are just amazing. Aren't they amazing?'' and drew hearty applause when he added ''We've got a message for the world -- we are stylish!'' The British female trio ''Rouge'' was named most stylish international group, while models of the year went to Nethtra and Aryan Vaid.

The ceremony also served as de facto fashion show for Indian designers, including Manish Malhotra, who was named designer of the year for film, and Sabyasachi Mukherjee, India's hottest new designer who won designer of the year for haute couture.

The show ended with a showing of Mukherjee's new line, a dramatic but considerably more austere and monochromatic collection than the others shown on Saturday. Using no color other than variations on a warm beige, the designer sent models down the runway in designs rendered in cotton and muslin that were quilted, pleated, fitted or belted, or sometimes tiered, tufted or tailored.

By contrast the collections by Malhotra or Atlanta-based designer Sushma Patel hewed more closely to what is often thought of as traditional Indian fashion, with feminine, flowing gowns and dresses in turned out in gauzy, sheer shades of peach or pink giving way to bolder shades of ruby red or glittering gold -- all embellished with spangles, sparkling embroidery and other reflective trim.

The evening was hosted by Bombay Dreams lead Manu Narayan, and musical performers included Amir Jamal, DJ Sanj, Narayan and Rouge in numbers that ranged from Broadway-style to hip-hop, but all with an Indian flavor.

Next year's awards will be handed out in Monte Carlo.

(Writing by Chris Michaud; Editing by Jackie Frank; Americas desk 202-898-8300).

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