A classy finale to the LFW

The grand finale of the tenth Lakme Fashion Week started fashionably over an hour late. Vikram Chatwal, Anaita Adajania, Manisha Koirala, Sonam Kapoor, Manish Malhotra, Rohit Bal, Anupama Verma and Aditi Gowitrikar were among the celebrity guests and the finale witnessed an over flowing house.

The set was all white with bells decorated with red roses. The sound of the bells was amazing and added to give a rich Indian wedding feel. The Fall Winter Lakme Fashion Week 2009 Bridal Sutra collection by Anamika Khanna was marvelous and fitting for the Indian bride. The makeup done with products from the Bridal Sutra collection comprised soft lips, a red bindi and winged black and gold eye liner. The hair was left loose and crimped. The brides had a very Bengali look that suited all their outfits, fortunately.

The collection was in soft, summery colours like champagne, ivory, white, beige, crème, off white, pastel blue, yellow and red. Brocade, cotton, organza, raw and crushed silk, georgette, chiffon, etc were the fabrics used. The embellishments were mainly soft gold and there was lots of embroidery, different textures, belts and borders with accents of gold. Even the footwear was gold. It was refreshing not to see any bright colours. The collection comprised of sarees, lehengas, gowns with an Indian edge, ghaghras, chunnis, cholis, patialas, dhoti pants.

The energetic Alecia Raut, veteran model Nina Manuel(who opened the show), the beautiful Waluscha Robinson, the restrained Monikangana Dutta and the striking Aanchal Kumar walked the ramp with the faces of Lakme: Indrani Dasgupta, Amrit Maghera and Vipasha Agrawal. Anu Ahuja put up a splendid show, even though it was a tad too long. But you do expect a substantial duration after you have waited almost an hour for the show to begin. All in all, a very classy, luxurious and timeless collection.

Designer Anamika Khanna was stylishly dressed in her own creation in crème and gold which she paired with black boots. It looked edgy and sexy. She said, “We have used Indian fabrics and drawn inspiration from all states like Kerala, Gujarat and Bengal. Traditional designs have been given a contemporary twist. At least 150-200 karigars including masters, tailors and embroiders have been used for the collection.”

Advisor to Lakme, Anil Chopra said, “At Lakme we have a concept and we discuss which designer’s collection would showcase the concept the best. We all agreed that it had to be Anamika Khanna. It took me two hours to convince and at the end of it she said, “I am delighted.” The beauty of India isthat we can take the same concept and showcase it in mkany different ways because of our cultural heritage and talent of our designers. Last year, Sabyasachi showcased the bridal sutra for winter so the colours were heavier and darker and this year, for summer, I loved the lightness of the colours and the outfits.”

On the success of the show he said, “The show has been successful beyond my expectations. The elections are going on but the LFW is making front page news along with it. People have loved the new venue and have asked me not to change it. This is our first time at Grand Hyatt and yet everything is so well organized. We will be here for a long time to come.”

Asked if recession had hit the LFW, Chopra said, “It hasn’t affected the LFW and India is growing. Our participation fee is the same and response from the buyers is the same if not better. Designers have become more business savvy and have decided to team instead of doing solo shows. In fact, India isn’t in recession, it is growing.”

On Bollywood stars as showstoppers he said, “We as LFW, do not invite Bollywood stars at all. Only the designers do it as part of their endorsement plans. LFW doesn’t invite film stars.”