WIFW model audition for A/W 2010 – look out for fresh faces The second round of model auditions for the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week autumn-winter 2010 scheduled to take place from March 24-28, 2010, was concluded with the selection of ten talented ladies, who were judged on various physical and attitudinal attributes. The jury comprised experts like Ashish Soni, Anjana Bhargav, Vinod Nair, Rahul Khanna, Niki Mahajan, Aparna Bahl, Payal Jain and Asha Kochhar. The second round of model auditions went a step further by expanding the ground for participation, where FDCI, for the first time ever, handpicked applicants from colleges, universities and through a rigorous digital campaign on Facebook. The ten beauties selected were Priyanka Mathur, Rashi Agarwal, Aditi Tyagi, Maragarita Ravona, Pavleen Gujral, Tahira Kochhar, Hasleen Kaur, Kalpana Malviya, Kanika Dev and Divya Sharma. Two experienced models selected were Shipra Malik and Sangeeta Bora.

The two mega fashion events in India are ready to roll next month with Lakmé Fashion Week Spring/Resort from March 5-9 and the Wills India Fashion Week Autumn/Winter from March 24-28. Interesting to note is that some designers are bravely showing at both these back-to-back fashion weeks and have created two different lines for each event. These brave hearts are Lecoanet-Hemant, Anupama Dayal, Rimzim Dadu, Cell DSGN, and newcomers Surabhi Chawla and Pooja Kapoor. Clearly the Lakmé Week is aimed at the Indian market and is timed for the current season of spring. About why the designers are opting for both the fashion weeks, Sunil Sethi, president of FDCI, the holder of WIFW said, “WIFW is the only B2B fashion event in the country with the biggest buyer turnout. The designers are going to Mumbai because they are getting sponsored shows, which mean they are being paid for their shows.”

She is not alone as along with her are shoe designer Swati Mehrotra and dance guru Shiamak Davar, along with the other regular inmates doing time with their assorted jail keepers and wardens. At the recent trade fair held in Delhi, the TJ (for Tihar Jail) brand shirts were a big hit. In order to help and improve the quality and finish of these shirts, Sanjana Jon held a fashion show and a workshop for the inmates. Swati Mehrotra of shoe label Swati Modo also held a shoe designing workshop and has enrolled the trainee inmates to help with her export line. A fashion show was held in the prison with Sanjana Jon, singer Shibani Kashyap, boxer Akhil Kumar and Indian women's hockey team captain Mamta Kharab modeled TJ’s fashion lines on the ramp. Shiamak Davar choreographed the show. He also held a workshop for the inmates. No place like Tihar!

Abraham and Thakore’s first ever Fashion Week with WIFW For the first time ever in their 18 year long career in fashion, the designer duo David Abraham and Rakesh Thakore have decided to participate in a fashion week. They will be presenting their creations under the Abraham & Thakore label at the upcoming Wills India Fashion Week in Delhi next month. The line will reflect their USP of minimalism. As reported in HT, they gave their reasons for abstaining from fashion weeks as not finding the platform necessary to promote their already thriving business. David Abraham has reportedly said, "Fashion weeks in India have assumed seriousness and are conducted in a professional way. With the changing scenario, there's a serious market for quality fashion here. India is the only country in Asia with such a big, organised fashion industry."

Calvin Klein presents his SS-2010 line in Singapore Jail

Calvin Klein’s Global Creative Director, Kevin Carrigan presented the fashion house’s Spring-2010 collection of apparel and accessory at a former prison of Singapore, which was shut down only last year in August. The collection line up was presented very dramatically, where the 20 models were strategically positioned on linear platforms within the cell block of the former prison. Large-scale video installation on the interior and exterior walls and in the cell venue, showed the current line. The move was symbolic of its social initiative where Calvin Klein has pledged support to the Yellow Ribbon Project (YRP) which helps to rehabilitate ex-offenders. They will donate 20% of total sales from their four free-standing stores in Singapore between January 22-24 and 29-31.

Alexader McQueen found dead in London home

Alexander McQueen, the genius revolutionary fashion designer was found hanging in his home in London, on Wednesday, February 10, 2010. He was a month away from his 41st birthday. It is speculated that a broken relationship drove him to take the extreme step of committing suicide. He had only recently renovated his newly acquired Victorian home. This son of a London cabbie had trained as a designer from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. So stunning was his very first graduation fashion show in 1994 that the famous Isabella Blow acquired it for $7,750. Next year he presented the controversial Highland Rape collection with low cut ‘bumster’ pants. Like all geniuses, he was also famous for his quirks and retained the ‘enfant terrible’ tag until the very end. He became Givenchy’s chief designer from 1996 to 2001 and moved to the Gucci Group which bought 51% stake in his label. He went on to expand his line to include menswear, accessories, fragrance, eyewear and a second line McQ. He will be sorely missed.

Naomi Campbell’s Haiti benefit fashion show to kick off LFW

Juxtaposing glamour and charity, supermodel Naomi Campbell is hosting a celebrity fashion show to aid mothers and babies of the quake hit region of Haiti. The event ‘Fashion for Relief’, which is scheduled on the eve of the London Fashion Week on the 18th February, will take place at the Somerset House in central London. Social charity organisation ‘The White Ribbon Alliance’, which promotes safe pregnancy and childbirth around the world and has the Prime Minister's wife Sarah Brown as its patron, will ensure that the money raised goes towards the benefit of Haiti’s new health system. Designers such as Vivienne Westwood, Jaeger and Dolce & Gabbana have contributed their lines for the show. Celebrities like Chris Brown, Kelly Osbourne, Rachel Zoe, Donna Karan Victoria Beckham and big models like Pat Cleveland, Angela Lindvall, Stella Tennant and Helena Christensen are part of the event and have donated their designer looks for the show. All garments will be auctioned on Net-A-Porter.com on March 15th, 2010.

Sonja den Elzen and her ‘conscience’ at NYFW A/W 2010

At the ongoing New York Fashion Week autumn/winter 2010, the Toronto based designer Sonja den Elazen presented her collection titled ‘Conscience’, which was intended to draw the attention of the world to the exploitation of Canada's Boreal forest through the mining of the tar sands. Her line comprised garments made of organic wool, recycled leather, bees waxed organic cotton, hemp tencel, and bamboo, which looked worn and rugged but showcased an appealing black-on-black look with a combination of textures. Canada’s tar sands are the world's largest proven oil reserves outside Saudi Arabia. The site preparation for strip mining of the tar sands will requires draining lakes and wetlands, diverting streams and rivers, clear-cutting forests, and removing all vegetation. Hydraulic shovels and trucks will dig as deep as 100 meters into the earth. Besides other losses, nearly 160 million boreal birds will perish.

The release of Tim Burton’s new movie ‘Alice in Wonderland’, with the talented Johny Depp as the Mad Hatter, is being celebrated by the department store Printemps in Paris in a most unique manner. The store has invited top notch international designers to create their take on Alice’s dress. The list of designers has names like Alexandr McQueen, Manish Arora, Haider Ackermann and Nicholas Kirkwood. It was Manish Arora’s selection that excited us on these shores and the reason why we are reporting it. His creation based on the film was for the rabbit and had playing cards made of same foam as the garment. It stands in the show window alongside Alexander McQueen’s dress for Alice, the one he designed before his death. The store will keep the display until March 14th.

Japan Fashion Week

The background of this fashion week should be a lesson for the Indian fashion weeks, which are going through so much turmoil since the past few years. The Council of Fashion Designers Tokyo, organizers of Tokyo Collections reviewed the working of Tokyo Collections in 2005, which was the 20th anniversary of the organization and to strengthen Tokyo as a fashion hub, the Council decided to team up with the government and private sector that created the first Japan Fashion Week in October 2005. This is a mix of designers, manufacturers, apparel and retailers who cooperated to form the Fashion Strategy Forum (currently the organizers of the Japan Fashion week) in June 2005, which also organizes textile exhibitions and fashion events at the same time as Tokyo Collections which is now Japan Fashion Week. The fair is held twice yearly in March and October. The 9th edition of the Japan Fashion Week was held from October 19-24 2009 in Roppongi for Tokyo Collections and from October 20-22 for Japan Fashion Week designers’ exhibition. Buyers are allowed only through requests for invites. Nitin Bal Chauhan exhibited at the Japan Fashion Week in 2008. For Indian designers this is a new region since most of the designers here cater to the Far East. The look and silhouettes may differ slightly from the west but the Far East has its own fashion sensibilities and sizing. It could be an event worth tapping.

Sao Paulo Fashion Week With Brazilian beaches being renowned for their beachcombers and sun worshippers who come from around the globe; it is but natural that the Sao Paulo Fashion Week will concentrate on swim and resort wear. Started in 1996 it was initially known as Morumba Fashion Brazil and got its current name in January 2001. Held at Ibinapuera Park in Sao Paulo twice a year in January and June, its exhibitors have grown from 21 to 46 with over a hundred thousand visitors. It is here that super models like Giselle Bündchen made their debut. At times the Brazilian beauties on the catwalk of Sao Paulo attract more attention that the creations on the ramp. With India hardly having a swim and beach wear culture, this fashion week is only great for countries that have designers who know what goes into the creativity of aqua wear.

Teen Blogger Tavi – fashion’s new wunderkind reporter

Barely thirteen and the young Tavi knows all the right answers. For those who weren’t there, Tavi started writing a blog ‘Style Rookie’ on fashion in 2008 when she was just eleven. So popular did her blog become because of her dead-on style observations and fearless fashion sense that she began to get invited to all mega fashion weeks and get the front row seat. She made headlines when Harper’s Bazaar hired Tavi to write copy for its January issue. It would be a good idea to let the kid grow up a bit and find her feet rather than get adrift in this wave of hype.

This is a Japanese fashion label owned and headed by Rei Kawakubo. The name Comme des Garcons is French for ‘like boys’. Started in Tokyo in 1969, it is now a $150mil company with several boutiques in London , Paris, New York City, Beijing, Hong Kong, St. Petersburg, Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Fukuoka. Comme des Garcons has hotted up the fashion arenas several times with innovative concepts like use of black and distressed fabrics, the 'lumps and bumps' collection, which contained fabric in bulk and balls on the garments, fusing tailored menswear with more feminine elements such as corsets and flower printed dress fabrics. Later adding a perfumes under the label, Comme des Garçons's first 'anti-perfume' Odeur 53, was a blending of 53 non-traditional notes to create a modern and striking scent. Some of these notes being: oxygen, flash of metal, washing drying in the wind, mineral carbon, sand dunes, nail polish, cellulose, pure air of the high mountains, burnt rubber and flaming rock. In December 2009, the label was sold to Susan Mazzola for a limited edition jet-ski, two packs of gum and an undisclosed amount of cash.

Loewe is a Spanish luxury clothing and accessories brand that was started by Enrique Roessberg Loewe, a German craftsman, who arrived in Madrid in 1892. Having established themselves as makers of premium bags across Europe, Loewe added a a fashionable prêt-a-porter women's line in the 70s. They have added perfumes to their range. Designer Narciso Rodríguez took over the women's prêt-a-porter collection in 1997, followed by José Enrique Oña Selfa with his collection for autumn-winter 2003/04. Today the over 150 year old firm is reinventing itself with the signing of designer Stuart Vevers, who has served as creative director from January 2008. Today Loewe is owned by the LVMH Group.

24th Surajkund Craft Mela get bigger with international participation The much awaited Surajkund Crafts Mela 2010 has just ended. This year the Mela had Tajakistan as the partner country and Rajasthan as the theme state. Over the years the Mela has become a huge showcase for the various handicraft persons who come from across the country to participate. This year we also had the participation of craftsmen from such nations as Thailand, Egypt and SAARC countries like Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Afghanistan. Sri Lanka had even sent 25 high level delegates to study and replicate the Mela in Sri Lanka. Most interesting were display of folk dances such as Kaal Belia (Rajasthan), Siddi Goma (Gujarat) and Brij Ki Holi and Charkula (Uttar Pradesh) including Egyptian Tannoura Dance and Thai Traditional dances during the Mela. The organizers have zinged up the event by adding a number of competitions for school and college students such as Rangoli, face painting and essay writing etc. Despite security threats and over seven lakh visitors thronging to the show, the event wrapped up peacefully.

With Bangalore Fashion Week just completing another edition and a split Kolkata Fashion Week getting ready to roll, the taunt is that it is raining Fashion Weeks! Everyone would agree that the ‘wow’ of the events has taken the marketing world by storm even if the media and consumer interest is somewhat waning. Nevertheless, in a free market economy, it is not unusual for the ‘good things’ to be taken to its logical extreme before a ‘new maturity’ emerges. With the FDCI deciding to showcase all applicants, including greenhorns, at its next Fashion Week in March, there seems to be no dearth of platforms. Unfortunately, what is missing is the business and many a designer has felt that the same business is getting divided over more aspirants. Perhaps the FDCI and other concerned local fashion development bodies need to concentrate more on marketing and promotion. Couture and designer wear is still primarily a ‘metro’ phenomenon. Perhaps we can take a leaf out of some good practices in the West. What we need more of are ‘Market Weeks’ not ‘Fashion Weeks’. The former are buyer-seller meets without the high costs of ramp performances and the often distracting ‘dramatics’ of the latter. This would also permit penetration to towns beyond metros.