Camera, Action and Lights Off at Fashion Week

New Delhi, Aug 30 (UNI) Lights went off during the show on the first day of the much-hyped Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week that began in the capital today drawing catcalls from a national and international audience.

The Fashion Week, which went on international format for the first time with its Spring-Summer collection, didn't however live up to global standards on the technical arena on Day One. The Jattinn Kochhar show was left in the dark literally for a few seconds taking the audience by surprise. The lights went when the ramp show was in progress.

''The lights don't go off like this anywhere else in the world,'' said Saman Kukreja and friend Wendy Morton, both designers and friends of Kochhar.

The audience began booing as the glitch was rectified and lights came on the models doing the catwalk.

* * * * None of the shows began on time eventhough the fashion industry's apex body, the Fashion Design Council of India, had issued strict instructions to ensure punctuality at the prestigious international event showcasing the best of Indian fashion.

Most of the six shows today, including that of top designers Manish Arora, Jattinn Kochhar and Rohit Gandhi-Rahul Khanna began late by at least 20 minutes irking participants including foreign buyers.

Some, however, said such delays were common in fashion shows worldwide. ''The organisers want to make every show perfect, so some delay in understandable,'' said Wendy Morton, a designer from Sydney. Several journalists covering the event resented the fact that they have to wait after arriving at show venues on time.

* * * * In terms of the number of journalists covering the event, the Spring-Summer WLIFW has not attracted any added interest from the media. Compared to the Fall-Winter show which was attended by about 400 journalists in April, the number this time is around the same, the organisers said.

The number includes about 300 accredited journalists, including photographers.

The facilities for the media were short of standards with the media centre equipped with only 15 computer terminals to cater to the 400 journalists. There was utter chaos with media people scrambling for seats to file stories.

UNI RA/FZ MSJ PM1908