Deepika leads Bollywood brigade for Shantanu-Nikhil

New Delhi, Oct 17 (UNI) The second day of the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week turned out to a real scorcher with Bollywood beauty Deepika Padukone walking the ramp last night for Shantanu-Nikhil's dramatic Ladakh-inspired collection and actresses Sameera Reddy and Minissha Lamba presenting Falguni and Shane Peacock's utterly mesmerising collection promoting the cause of breast cancer awareness.

Glamour spelled Deepika Padukone who appeared on the ramp in a pure white ensemble from Shantanu-Nikhil's Spring-Summer 2009 collection, depicting the extremely cold climate of Ladakh. All the whites from the collection had faces of Ladakh's natives printed on them.

Other silhouettes comprised of mountaineous prints, layering of thick strips and lots of surface texturing.

Taking inpiration from nature in its purest and harshest form, the colours chosen were ash and cement grey beside pristine blue and the ensembles were all hand-woven.

''Nothing is machine-made here,'' Shantanu told mediapersons.

Two ensembles stood out. The one was a shirt for men which appeared more like a top with embedded layers like those of a shawl worn over a cardigan which actually gave a combination of both to the dress. The other was titled the womb - a cocoon kind of silhouette made of silk oraganza, enveloping the upper body of the lovely model Binal.

Shantanu said, ''The collection is a take on how nature absorbs you. Nature and humans come together in our work. The fabrics we've used are silk organza and silk from Bhagalpur.'' The eclectic presentation of the show with the sounds of icy winds playing as background music added to the drama of the collection which Nikhil said was targeted at the global Indian woman.

When pointed out that the collection contrarily appeared to be mainly western with its gowns and tunics, Nikhil defended his work by saying, '' Indianness doesn't just mean embroidery. It's also about fabrics.'' Shantanu here added, ''we've made our own fabrics.'' The price of the collection ranges from 200 dollars to 1500 dollars, said Nikhil.

Expressing happiness over her reappearance on the ramp scene after a gap of one and a half years, Deepika Padukone said, ''I'm very happy with their collection. If they make more collections as good as this one, I'll come again.'' More UNI PK RKM HT1015