The Kolkata Fashion & Lifestyle Week in its all new avatar commences from the February 24th, 2010. This fashion week is being spearheaded by Yudhajit Dutta the dynamic Managing director of Purple People Entertainment. After the split with the Kolkata Fashion Week it has come forward as a very promising event for the city with renowned designers like Narendra Kumar, JJ Valaya, Satya Paul, Zubair Kirmani, Samant Chauhan showcasing here.

As Yudhajit says, “The KFLW is not Kolkata centric but it aims towards a national platform for fashion but there is no doubt that it proves influential for the designers from Kolkata and also satisfies the growing demand and awareness of the fashion conscious city.”

The theme of the event this year is Eco Fashion, which refers to clothing and fashion that is environmentally sensitive fabrics and uses eco-friendly production techniques. The theme has been selected in view of the fact that 2010 has been declared the ‘year of biodiversity’ by the United Nations. And hence the designers showcasing at KFLW will present at least one line of eco sensitive collection. The Fashion Week is also propagating the cause for SAVE Tigers and in this endevour the after parties at the fashion week have paid passes, the proceeds from which would be donated towards the cause.

On the question of the increasing number of fashion weeks in India Dutta responds, “There are both good and bad points to any clause and so is the case with the fashion weeks as well. We at KFLW embody a serious take on fashion and business and we are spending a lot of money in organizing the event. Thus India with a population of more than one billion can be represented more than two or three fashion weeks as per the increase in awareness and reach of fashion in the country.”

The young designers showcasing at the KFLW have been through a selection procedure and proved themselves on the basis of their design and creativity.  And thus young talent such as Arjun Agarwal, Aarti Vijay Gupta, Debarun Mukherjee, Gopal Roy, Jaya Mishra, Radhika Sayantan, Souvik Aditi, Soma Nath and Tejas Gandhi will showcase their creations on the same platform. The models sashaying down the ramp are all Elite models. The buyers list is also quite an exhaustive one with national and International buyers already signed in for the event.

“Kolkata has open handedly welcomed the fashion week and the design fraternity has also registered serious business and overwhelming clientele which brings the designers back again to the city. Also designers like Dev r Nil who haven’t had the need to showcase outside Kolkata since the inception of the fashion week in the city. Thus we aim towards a serious fashion business at this fashion week and it’s not a show just for the sake of having a fashion show,” says Yudhajit Dutta.

The Indo-French designers have united not only the East and the West but also the past to the future. Their early years were spent in Paris at an Haute Coutre House, a field where garments are unique pieces of art, handmade to perfection abiding the principles of a secular manufacturing tradition. They later moved to India where they continue to work with an identical approach, but at a Hi-tech industrial level. Their new headquarters thus unite the concept of an atelier or traditional workroom with ultra modern cutting edge technology, a challenge to create a unique product.

To divulge you more on this duo, we bring you Hemant in an exclusive tete-a-tete with Fashiofad.in :

Tell us the story of how and when you started with your label?
I have never been seriously interested in anything else than fashion in my life and have thus not ever have had to search – all my youth was thus a build-up to get into this business. When I met Lecoanet in school in Paris we started working together within days of meeting and it has stayed like that – setting up the company and the label etc were just natural in this context

Which designer gave you the most inspiration in your fashion career?
Many and nobody in particular

How do you look back on your journey as a designer?
I don’t really look back except for reminiscing, I find present tense much more exciting, in fact present tense is the only place you can do things in life.

If you are on a budget and can afford only a great haircut, a great handbag, or a statement coat, what should you invest in to give you the most personal style?
A haircut … the rest can be improvised

What is your thought on the future of fashion? More specifically, what kind of changes will you bring to your brand?
What I do today was partially decided in my youth, other things, more details maybe just this morning. There is no future of Fashion, only Present fashion, the rest is planning it out … I plan a continuation of my own logic … no revolutions

What inspires you most to design? 
I believe in being creative, full stop. That includes writing, sports, cooking even financials

What house/brand would you design (for?) if you were not Lecoanet Hemant (?) and why?
That’s science fiction

The clothing you create is amazing. How do you keep going even through the hard times, or design blocks?
Design is about 0.5% of the work and usually takes about 15-20 seconds … recognizing its subjective value is the key of understanding … knowing how to make it is everything .. there is nothing like a beautiful design that is badly crafted … to me it’s bad design … or rather just bad!

Which was your inspirational item or person when you came up with your first collection?
Like all first collections this was full of ideas, in fact simply too many… the following years were needed to simplify … The first collection in haute Couture in Paris was an "Ode to the Monsoon"

High fashion can be very expensive and also ephemeral; keeping this in mind and the fact that there is a global economic crisis, not to mention a growing percentile of famine, poverty, pollution, disease, and conflict, what advice would you give in order to maintain a personal balance between investing time and money in fashion and altruistic involvement toward improvement in society and the environmental?
The more High Fashion is expensive the more it fights again poverty in the world: …  which also means the cheaper fashion is the more it helps develop poverty in the world. High Fashion is transparent management with ethics and higher salaries than the rest which lives by bargaining cheap labour down, is unethical, often does not pay taxes and encourages black money. Please reconsider your question.

What are the fashion essentials that a person has to have in order to exude glamour?
I don’t know … maybe glamour?

Which decade do you think is most important to fashion, and how are you inspired by that decade?
I live and work now, knowing the history of your business is super important but will never be anything else than history and a lesson … what you are doing now is the exam.