October 2014 - Page 5 of 18

In an initiative to promote Mauritius as a preferred luxury wedding destination, OM Luxe and Mauritius Tourism connected with Charu Parashar to showcase her Bridal Couture collection, at Eros Hotel.

Talking about luxury were, Mr. Joyker Nayeck, Deputy High Commissioner in Mauritius Embassy, Promila Jain Bahari, Seema Kohli, Pooja Gogia, Anupam Parashar, Kajoli Sen, Neelam Pratap Rudy, Niladri Paul, Suparna Trikha, Nandini and Abhinav Kant Chaturvedi, Ramneek Pantal, Devika and Mohit Sahni and Rooma Sekhri, Samant Chauhan, Amit GT, Sachin Khurana, Ramola Bachchan, Liza Verma among others

Vacheron Constantin hosted a maiden exhibition to celebrate and preview “Kaleidoscope” by noted British fashion photographer, Ram Shergill at The Switzerland Embassy.

Aiming to build a framework and context around Indian photography by showing, new projects from inside the country alongside works from the West, Vacheron Constantin initiative is unseen in India before, like Ram Shergill “Kaleidoscope” reflecting the riot of colors inspired by the country, is primary been influenced by his childhood memories of growing up in the UK. “For my first exhibition in India I’ve been delighted to have the support of Vacheron Constantin – a brand whose attention to detail and understanding of art and craftsmanship is a perfect fit with the kind of beauty and style I try and capture in my photographs, said Ram Shergill.

The Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art gets acquainted with its first ever fall exhibition titled ‘Death Becomes Her: A Century of Mourning Attire’. The exhibition opens on 21^st October and features the never talked about, yet in-demand costumes catering to the grieving occasions and the funerals.

The show has been carefully arranged chronologically from 1815 through 1915, featuring as many as 30 looks which portray the transformation of mourner’s wardrobe through various stages of grief.

Far from displaying the so called ‘sad’ ensembles, the exhibition is rather a detailed study of an ancient ritual that was mainly expressed via fabrics, i.e., matte right after the death of a beloved, with a gradual introduction of colour, pattern and even shine as the mourner works through the grief.

Speaking of the utmost priority of the organisers behind this exhibition, they looked forward to it as an opportunity to show how 19^th century high-fashion evolution overlaid with an important social condition, a protocol for ritualizing social interactions, which was both a cultural and a fashion phenomenon.

Besides, the exhibition also features ranging from fans and parasols to a carved jet 1860 necklace and several lockets featuring enamelled images of the deceased.

The exhibit is surely an illustration of the long lost fashionable past of mourning and its remembrance.

It will run through 1^st February 2015 at the Anna Wintour Costume Centre.

The Cannes Film Festival, which comprises of red carpet events and movie premiers featuring celebrities dressed in their best and their worst, has partially always been within the ‘fashion’ festival.

However, a group of entrepreneurs announced that the May of 2015 will see the first ever ‘Cannes Fashion Festival’, which will run during the film festival itself, from 20^th to 22^nd May.

In accordance with the declaration, the festival will feature an array of glittering runway shows and glamorous events to be attended by international designers, journalists, industry insiders and fashion forward consumers.

Well, let’s see how the Cannes Fashion Festival will actually turn out to be: will it take away the charm of the film festival or will it act as an inviting event, time alone can tell!

Just a day before the highly anticipated Grand Finale of this Japanese Fashion Week, onlookers stepped in with a new flash of excitement! As many as 8 runway designers showcased their spring summer Japanese influenced fashion cultures, in full fervour and passion.

The day kicked off with fashion labels Ujoh and Né-Net, whose creations were ethnic and chic in their own unique fashion. For Ujoh, the traditional Japanese midis, the street style crop tops and cargo capris and the admirably comfortable jumpsuits were all about this year’s ready to wear. A soft colour palette accompanied with soothing to the eyes floral prints was what made Ujoh amongst the onlookers’ favourite for the entire fashion week. Meanwhile, the latter concentrated more in showcasing structured silhouettes and a glossy pastel scheme of colours. Yet again, designer Kazuaki Takashima focused on innate Japanese culture influenced prints, styles and fits, attached with the required amount of delicacy and decency.

However, adding the much required dynamism to the ambience of the evening, designer Koji Udo presented his exclusive men’s ready to wear creations for the label Factotum. For him this year, it was all about an adventurous play with the two basic colours of black and white. From casual striped pyjamas and some playful boxers to classy blazers and denim jackets, the collection was applauded for its effective encapsulation of the entire ready to wear genre in the most youthful and fun way!

We had been missing some chic evening wear party ensembles just when designer Pim Sukhahuta’s Sretsis hit the runway in full swing. Lighting up the mood, the designer’s creations were edgy and filled with oomph and glamour, along with an enhanced amount of a shimmery colour palette. Giving a cut-throat competition to Sretsis was the label Onitsuka Tiger by Andrea Pompilio. Creating an eerie ambience for the evening, the designer’s creations were more inclined towards the elegant and classy evening wear, replete of subtle gowns and dresses in enigmatic colours which acted as the major highlights of the day.

Progressing towards the forthcoming day, the Japanese fashion week finally approached its end as the Grand Finale hit the grounds on 18^th October. Mr. Gentlemen, Taro Horiuchi, Toga Virilis, Phire Wire, Facetasm and C.E were amongst the fashion labels showcasing their spring summer 2015 collections on the runway.

The curtains were raised by the exotic menswear collection by the label Mr. Gentlemen. The collection remained true to the terms gentility and chivalry. A number of formal wear were showcased, in a surprising yet highly admirable colour palette including bright reds, yellows, sky blues and Lucite greens to name few. Shirt styled tee shirts with funky pockets and collars were the major highlights of the collection. For someone who likes to keep it cool, along with maintaining the required decency and class, the collection is must have!

Also, Toga Virilis, Phire Wire and Facetasm also surprisingly presented exclusive menswear collections. All the three designers exclusively catered to casual, semi-formal and funky street wear genres. Where Phire Wire and Facetasm deployed the use of a vibrant scheme of colours, there Toga Virilis on the other hand displayed unique shades of reds, oranges, blues and beiges. Embellishments and add-on for this terrific trio included zesty zippers, bulky boxers, subtle stripes and luring layers. All in all, these collections surely bought forward a couple of must haves as well as a few enhancements and substitutions for spring summer 2015.

Meanwhile, designer Taro Horiuchi stood at an exclusive individualistic pedestal in her own personalised fashion. Her ready to wear 2015 collection was meant for the ambitious, aspiring yet highly glamorous women of today’s times. The silhouettes were mostly free flowing and the colour palette was gorgeously subtle. Playing with the shadows of black, white and grey, the designer proved that it isn’t necessarily important to follow the fashion conventions and continue monotony. Henceforth, her elegant gowns, sleek dresses and casual jumpsuits, all worked at the best of her advantage!

Thus concluded our Tokyo Fashion Week Spring Summer 2015, bringing up the best enhancement and ace styling for the upcoming fall season.

Five of the country’s biggest Internet Service Providers, namely Virgin Media, BT, EE, BSkyB and TalkTalk have been strictly instructed by the High Court to block all access to six websites which have been defamed for selling counterfeited goods.

Along with a straight-forward access denied notice issue to these websites, the additional ruling states injunction issued by the Richemont group (claiming to be authentic Montblanc-Simplo and Cartier International) will expire after a certain amount of time unless they re-submit a request for extension of the ISPs agree to prolong the directive.

The six websites in question are- artierloveonline.com, hotcartierwatch.com, iwcwatchtop.com, replicawatchesiwc.com, 1iwc.com, montblancpensonlineuk.com and ukmontblancoutlet.co.uk, all of whom are known to sell fake high-value items such as watches and pens.

The step is a sure short recognition of the fact that there is public interest in preventing trade mark infringement, particularly where counterfeit goods are involved.

Meanwhile, in December last year, the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU), Europol and the US authorities closed down 90 websites selling counterfeit goods as part of its worldwide crackdown.

The Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week was this year met by an exclusive party for the media organised by the Fashion Design Council of India. Celebrities on and offstage, front row fashionistas and the crème de la crème of the city were seen having a gala time over exotic wines and mouth-watering cuisines.

The fun wasn’t over until the amazingly gracious and magnificent grand finale by Rohit Bal was accompanied by an enthralling after party, making the conclusion of the fashion week and the highly awaited show come full circle!

Pharrell Williams wore a bespoke Swarovski crystal mesh cardigan on stage for his Dear Girl tour. Crystal mesh is a fluid metal fabric set with thousands of Swarovski crystals – Pharrell’s cardigan features white knit trims, giant silver popper closures and 5000 Swarovski crystals.