Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week

All flashes and cameras will be turned towards Delhi’s Pragati Maidan where the India’s most renowned fashion show Wills Lifestyle India Fashion week (WIFW) kicked off on Wednesday with designer Vikram Phadnis’s show, themed ‘save the earth.’

Possibly one of a handful of female designers making menswear, Rajvi Mohan, 27, kicked off the maiden Delhi Fashion Week that started at the DLF Centre, adjacent to Emporio Mall, on Tuesday. The Delhi Fashion Week is small in scale, with less than 30 designers participating (at last count, the Wills India Fashion Week had over 70). However, on Day 1, things went off as they should — right from efficient valet parking to well-spaced out show area to food options, you can pick between AD Singh’s new Japanese restaurant Ai and a more familiar Costa Coffee counter.

Malini Ramani opened Wills Fashion Week
A model presents a creation from an Indian designer Tarun Tahiliani's Autumn/Winter 2008 collection at the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week in New Delhi, India, . More than 80 designers are showcasing their creations on the ramp or in stalls at the five-day fashion week
A model presents a creation from Indian designer Prashant Verma's Autumn/Winter 2008 collection at the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week in New Delhi,
A model presents a creation from Indian designer Ritu Kumar's Autumn/Winter 2008 collection at the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week in New Delhi
A model presents a creation from Indian designer Ritu Kumar's Autumn/Winter 2008 collection at the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week in New Delhi, India,

Mohan made her first ever participation at a fashion week in the country with “Rat Pack Nirvana”, a tribute to her fashion icon, Dean Martin. The Delhiite comes with impressive credentials, having trained with the famed Vivienne Westwood and studied at the Parson’s School of Design, New York. Her collection, which has a hint of Indian prints, is otherwise inspired by the grunge look of the Forties and the Fifties and a generation of entertainers like Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr and Martin. “I wanted to do a line that would look at Martin’s sense of dressing in an Indian context. This is what I felt it would be like,” she said. There were front pleats and generous layering, intelligent panelling that highlighted the contrasts and an interplay of summer hues, from bright yellows to aster blues and wild limes. Akshay Kumar and his costume designer Shabinaa Khan can pat themselves on the back for sparking off a trend. Mohan’s show had a liberal sprinkling of trousers cut to the knee for more formal capris, a look that Kumar has made famous in his movie ‘Singh is Kinng’. We liked the jackets in particular, with their streamlined lapels and play on essential summer textiles like linen and stretch cotton. The only patchy part of the show was the fittings of some of the ensembles — a few sherwani bottoms looked like a cross between zoaves and fitted pajamas.
Abhijeet Khanna’s collection, which came next, focussed on all things luxurious, even in these times of near-recession. His collection — an assortment of shift dresses, harem pants and tops, inspired by the Indian styling of French Rococo — was embellished with sequins and incorporated Indian embroidery in otherwise western silhouettes. Khanna had been design assistant to Manish Arora for over four years, and the affinity to Arora’s sensibilities clearly shows. The fish-scale-patterned dress that ended the show was reminiscent of Arora’s warrior collection.