Zubair Kirmani describes today’s luxury as the synthesis of mystery and apparent casualness. His designs reflect the beauty and purity of simple uncomplicated garments yet immaculately clean lines with vigilant attention to details and touch of comfort and versatility. With style inclined towards, classic he focuses on the use of chanderi, lurex and velvet in his garments and intricate thread work in contemporary motifs has been his forte.

• The label “BOUNIPUN by ZUBAIR KIRMANI” was launched IN 2005
• Showcased his first collection at WIFW in 2007
• Works highly on the lines of hand stitched garments

Vikram Phadnis started his career as a choreographer and juggled in myriad works before choosing fashion as his true calling. Not having gone any formal training in fashion, he currently adorns the wardrobes of some of the biggest names in the glamour industry. Besides his passion for designing, Vikram is a natural stylist too.

The ace designer has showcased his collection in numerous fashion weeks where his efforts have always been to achieve synthesis of popular and avant-garde tastes. His unique selling point is his bridal and prêt-a-porter wear.Concentrating on everyday realistic styles, his collections are high on practicality and elegance. He also represented India in the 10th Sanlam South African Fashion Week in 2006.

Vikram has a long term association with the Film fraternity. He has a loyal fan following amongst Bollywood stars like Salman Khan, John Abraham, Bipasha Basu, Lara Dutta, Malaika Arora, Ayesha Takia Priyanka Chopra, Sushmita Sen and Aishwarya Rai who swear by his collections. He has designed the costumes for various films including Mujhse Shaadi Karogi, Lucky, Salaam-e-Ishq and Aitraaz. His outing with Priyanka Chopra for Mujhse Shaadi Karogi won him an IIFA award for the Best Designer.

 In the past two decades, he has created for himself a place in the Fashion and Film Industry, which can be filled by none other. The multi-faceted man now also plans to venture into directing his own movie.

Phadnis retails from his flagship store in Mumbai & Delhi where his label offers high end Indian and western wear, both for men and women. His creations are also available at Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chicago, New York and Saudi Arabia. He holds the distinction of being the first Indian designer to open a stand-alone store in South Africa at Johannesburg.

You can get Vikram at:

Square One, Ground Floor, Gulmohur Road, JVPD, Mumbai

Web: www.vikramphadnis.com 

Understated and chic, his interpretation of fashion is the embodiment of subtle glamour and his sharp silhouettes are always balanced by the right choice of fabrics. His collections bring out not only his artistic sensibilities but also his technical finesse.

While pursuing his Fashion Degree, along came offers to design for top notch Bollywood film stars in almost 35 feature films. With time the canvas just got bigger for this firmly rooted designer. Two of his most remarkable assignments were, the then leading airline, East West Airlines, and the very first cellular company Max Touch which is now known as Vodafone. Success stirred the desire to come up with a signature brand where the basic was transformed into brilliance.

Troy launched his personal label TD Costa, designing made-to-measure couture which was soon followed by an itch to venture into PRET. This gave birth to a sensuously stylish label Helen of Troy in 2003, which soon got co-branded with BE (a division of Raymond) for their private label for 6 seasons. Troy Costa, the menswear label was created in 2007.

• Dubai International Fashion Week, Spring Summer ’08

• Lakme Fashion Week, Mumbai Troy Costa Spring Summer ‘09

• Troy Costa couture transformed the contestants of the Bombay Times Fresh face 2010.

• Mercedes launched the ALS SMS Gulling, after nearly 3 decades, Troy was one of the three designers worldwide invited to design a collection based on the automobile.

• Fashion Show for the Australian Consulate in which his collection featured ‘Chain Mail’ used for the first time in India

Troy Costa has been exclusively roped in for designing the entire look for hosts of Television shows across channels such as Zee TV, MTV, Sony TV, Colors, Star Plus .One of his hugely successful stints being designing for Shaan on the popular show Amul Voice of India and lately, Idea Rocks. His celebrity clients include the likes of Hrithik Roshan, Abhay Deol, Imran Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Farhan Akhtar, John Abraham, Aamir Khan and many more.

You can get Troy Costa at:

www.troycosta.com

A NIFT graduate with a diploma in fashion styling from Milan, Italy, Swapnil Shinde first tasted success when he was chosen as the first runner-up in the reality TV show, “Lakme Fashion House”. His hard won prize was six months of internship with the House of Versace, one of the best known Italian fashion brands. It was there that he learnt true aesthetics and expanded his horizons to world fashion.

In a time span of merely three years, this young designer has found his foot hold in an industry which is known for its ruthlessness.

When he established his brand “SWAPNIL SHINDE”, his aim was to strike a balance between two extreme terms, ‘sexy’ and ‘elegant’. Elegance without boredom and Sexiness without trashiness – And this is the look Shinde has tried to create. His target group is the young Indian women which falls in the 18 to 25 age category and it is for them that he makes his creations cost-effective. His label does not scream Indian-ness and cash on the latest desi trends but subtly suggests the innate Indian grain. Over the years, Shinde has developed his very own prints and started giving more attention to accessories as well which has buyers and critics alike eating out of his hand.

Swapnil has also managed to strike a chord with the B-town celebs who can’t get enough of his work. Aishwarya Rai , Priyanka Chopra, Lara Dutta ,Mughda Godse, Amrita Rao, Soha Ali Khan , Shweta Salve ,Kangana Ranaut,Shweta Bhardwaj, Mandira Bedi, Shazahn Padamsee are just the few names that have adorned his creations.

Shinde stuck gold in Bollywood when he designed key look for Madhur Bhandarkar’s fashion. His styling of Priyanka Chopra in the movie was widely appreciated. He also designed the wardrobe of the 2010 Rahul Bose starrer horror flick, Fired.

Sensitive fusing of eastern traditions with western aesthetics in typical hand embroideries with doris and silk threads, patchwork with leftover silk strips traces its life in the partly Maharashtrian and part Tibetan/Sikkimese origins of Sonam Dubal. He graduated of fashion design at the NIFT in 1990 and began his career with the vanguard of Indian fashion Rohit Khosla. For the next eight years Sonam worked in areas of theatre design, advertising, all the while exploring new experiences and traveling extensively around the world absorbing.

He returned to mainstream fashion in 1999 with the launch of his label Sanskar and started his own studio. The label began with a simple wearable collection in old brocades with Ogaan in New Delhi. Having always wanted to connect to the past Sonam had been partial to recycling as a concept designing with this in mind he strived to integrate fabrics using old textiles mainly saris thus absorbing tradition and interpreting it in styles that are contemporary. This alternative design philosophy caught the eye of the trend store L’eclaireur, Paris at LFW.

• 2002- The Singapore Fashion Festival

• 2003- first introduced at the Lakmé India Fashion Week

• 2006- The Rosemount Australia Fashion Week  Melbourne

• 2006.- recipient of one of the top 50 achievers in Global Mainstream in the category of fashion at the university of Leicester law school

• 2007- he was awarded the Elle Global Award

The label focuses on traditional eastern thought and philosophy through inspired silhouettes like the bakhu and honjus re-invented into chic and contemporary versions with stripes providing relief. Typical to Sanskar are the hand embroideries with doris and silk threads, patchwork with leftover silk strips which is amalgamated to create interesting weave like effects on textile. Printing and handpainting have been recently incorporated in the collections drawing inspirations from the various parts of the world. In time a distinct signature style has emerged influenced by both Eastern traditions and western thoughts. Hence growth has been an intuitive process sensitive fusing both eastern philosophy and western aesthetics.

Sanskar by Sonam Dubal has its extensive retails presence globally. In India it is available at high fashion brands like Ogaan, Aza, Rudraksh, Amethyst, Casa Goa, 85 Lansdowne and Cinnamon. And internationally it retails through Asia society in New York, Tashi in London, Les Nomades in Geneva, Piluca Osaba in Spain, Naseem@Home in Melbourne and Arida in Sydney.

You can get Sonam Dubal at:

www.sonamdubal.com