A highlight of this year’s show at LFW will be the special evening event by Mandeep Nagi, Design Director of Shades of India, show cases her summer collection with girls from Kranti modelling the clothes. Kranti, the Mumbai based NGO, has won international recognition for rehabilitating girls from the red light area. They will tell their stories while demonstrating their pride and independence in the exquisite clothes from Mandeep’s Bagh collection.
Mandeep has made a point of not using professional models in her photoshoots. For her highly successful Cinnamon collection, she chose Kamla as her model. In normal life Kamla – tall, beautiful and with naturally superb poise – works as a house help. Mandeep wanted to demonstrate that even girls from the most modest backgrounds can prove their independence and hold their heads high. She followed the same path with her recent Nazraana collection where the clothes – inspired by the courtly life of old Lucknow – are again modelled by a girl from an unprivileged background.
The Bagh spring and summer collection draws on similar themes that inspired Awadh and Nazraana with echoes of courtly life combined with a stylish bohemianism. Fabrics are fine hand woven cottons, silks and precious metallic weaves. Silhouettes are inspired by traditional kurtas and pajamas and by re-interpreting saris with a bohemian look. In all the styles, the layering of fabrics, textures and colours brings surprise.
Gautam Vazirani, Fashion Curator with IMG Reliance has long been an admirer of Kranti and of its Director Robin Chaurasia. It was on his direction LFW included this spectacular show linked to social responsibility with fashion.
