Double delight: Twin fashion carnivals come calling

New Delhi, Oct 13 (UNI) Let vogue be thy name and style their glory -- a watchword with which up go the curtains for grandiose opening galas of two top-of-the-line fashion jamborees -- India Fashion Week and Delhi Fashion Week -- in a space of two days from tomorrow here, bringing alive a heady concoction of grandeur, elan and panache to the national capital which it witnessed never before in the rag trade.

The DFW, a five-day extravaganza, begins here tomorrow with top-notch designers showcasing their luminous fashion spread on the ramp during the festival.

The event, which almost runs parallel to the IFW, would be held at the upscale Emporio Mall in south Delhi. The faction-ridden fashion world would be vying to draw more and more buyers in the battle royale.

The fiesta would showcase the talent of 35 couturiers as compared to 80 from the fashion fraternity, including New York-based designer Vivienne Tam, for the IFW.

Fashion impressarios, who would portray their collections on the models, include Tarun Tahiliani, Malini Ramani, Raghuvendra Rathore, Meera and Muzaffar Ali, and Anamika Khanna. Up-and-coming fashionistas would also present their styles at the show.

Besides lissome models, those expected to add sheen to the dual events from tinseltown for the high-end designers are Bipasha Basu, Shilpa Shetty, Karisma Kapur, Amrita Rao and Kangana Ranaut. Beijing Olympics bronze medal-winning pugilist Vijendra Kumar would also sashay down the catwalk.

The newly-formed Fashion Foundation of India (FFI), an apex body for the fashion industry, is endorsing the DFW and Prodigy Fashion is the organiser of the event.

The FFI is a proactive body involved in multiple design, fashion, and craft initiatives that will help promote the industry and take it to the higher road.

The shows would begin at 1300 hrs and the last show of each day would be held at 2100 hrs.

However, the late night schedule of the fiesta has been cut short on October 17 owing to 'Karva Chauth', the fasting day of Hindu wives. Married women fast for the well-being of their husbands.

Designers are apprehensive whether their clients would attend the shows as they would be busy following the rituals, in which wives break open their day-long fast after praying to the moon.

Besides all these, one thing that will be under the lens of fashionistas and the moral brigade will be wardrobe malfunction. It seems wardrobe malfunction and fashion events are becoming inseparable with each passing day.

The spectre of the faux pas comes back every time to haunt fashion weeks, leaving the self-styled police hot under the collar, but at the same time hogging the spotlight which even some events of national importance crave for.

In the past, several petite models experienced the slip-ups, leaving the organisers and designers shame-faced and high and dry.

But the notoriety of the gaffes notwithstanding, the couturiers of the slip-up shows saw their business rocketing to the skyline and in the process they ended up earning some big money.

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