'Nature Trip' kicks off Wills Fashion Week

New Delhi, Aug 30: A nature-inspired Manish Arora collection today opened the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week (WLIFW) amid a packed house of domestic and international fashion houses indicating a renewed interest in Indian fashion.

Colours, birds and flowers were the theme of the 'Nature Trip' collection adorned by top models including Deepika Padukone and Joey Mathew at the first ramp show of the five-day fashion extravaganza that has returned to the capital after the WLIFW Fall-Winter event in April.

''It was a fantastic beginning,'' said Rathi Vinay Jha, director-general of Fashion Design Council of India the apex body of fashion industry which is organising the event.

Day One belonged to the tribe of Delhi fashion designers as the Rohit Gandhi-Rahul Khanna duo, Jattinn Kochhar and Anamika rolled out their tantalising creations themed differently. While Gandhi and Khanna played on childhood and youth, the Kochhar collection had a mix of trendy beachwear and maternity clothes symbolising the transformation of human life.

Kolkata-based designers Mona Lamba-Pali Sachdev too presented their Spring-Summerwear followed by another Delhiite Rohit Bal.

''The show has lined up well and even the buyers have responded enthusiastically,'' Ms Jha said after the Arora show.

Responding to criticism that desinger labels are exclusively priced for the elite, Kochhar turned his models out in clothes that he said were ''affordable'' and ''wearable''. ''Everybody seems to be criticising about how our clothes are priced high. This time I designed something that would look good on me and I myself could wear,'' he said.

Arora, who will showcase the same collection at the London Fashion Week in September, said his collection was about lives while denying the images of birds and animals were inspired by animal rights activist Maneka Gandhi.

Models wearing handwoven patchwork garments some of them done in Benaras silk displayed images of animals, birds, fish, flowers, rivers, waterfalls, trees and sky to ''create a beatiful colourful world'' as A R Rahman songs and Veda chants rivetted in the backdrop during the Arora show.

More than 170 buyers including 90 domestic houses are taking part in the event which is primary a trade show acting as a platform for taking Indian fashion to the global industry.

''Fashion in India is more about glamour and glitz,'' said Wendy Morton, a designer from Sydney, Australia, who is attending an Indian fashion event for the first time.

Arora who has four stores in India and sells his collections through 85 stores abroad said he would be setting up another store in Kuwait in mid-September.

Top designers participating in the event include Tarun Tahiliani, Rocky S, J J Valaya and Rina Dhaka.

UNI