The Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week Autumn/ Winter 2010/11 summarized on Monday the 29th of March 2010, after a gala dose of fashion from 74 fashion shows, a total of 130 fashion and accessory designers, host models and ten new faces, the media buzz all that floated over the 5 days, errrr… 6 days long event. After the cancellation of the first day the week took off with from the scheduled second day shows with panache and grandeur. The first day shows got added at the end of the fashion week as the sixth day named, the Grand Fashion Day by Sunil Sethi, President FDCI. The grand fashion day proved to be grand enough with the acclaimed quirky accessory designer Little Shilpa opening the day followed by the theatrical opulence of Nida Mahmood’s Sadak Chap. The WIFW though missed Satya Paul who is celebrating its 25 years of fashion as he cancelled his show after the first day’s cancellation.
This fashion week also went absolutely upfront and active on the internet this time as it saw for the first time live updates of each show by the official blogger of FDCI Harilein Sabarwal, tweeting by Farah Khan and live streaming of the event online. And yes we also saw the most glamorous and beautiful Sheetal Mallar behind the lens as she was official celebrity photographer catching the action backstage and finally she even graced the ramp for JJ Valaya on the last day last show. The star quotient and the Bollywood show stopper trend was much under reins as very few Bollywood guests came down and the clothes undoubtedly attracted the entire centrifugal force.
Art, fashion and social cause posed a picture perfect image with the unveiling of designed inspired art on auto-rickshaws which have been painted by twelve high profile artist. This collaboration is for the FDCI’s association with Khushi to support its global development initiative, the World Action Forum. For the first time in India six international World of Wearable art (WOW) designs were showcased highlighted with a photo exhibit by India’s ace photographer Rohit Chawla featuring fifteen other garments. And winning design of Burn contest which was a garment created out of empty cans was also showcased.
The venues woes though kept surfacing now and then while you had to go out in the sun each time you wanted to visit the stall area or the washrooms and the entire media traffic was transferred in an opposite direction for lunch and dinner. As usual the sponsors had their stalls and lounges in the premises of the main show area.
An unofficial buyers list named around 18 International and 10 domestic buyers. The international thoroughfares came from Paris, Japan, Riyadh, Hong Kong, Italy, Kuwait, Dubai, Bahrain and USA. The rendezvous at WIFW ended with satisfied business transactions as the buyers seemed quite impressed with India’s fashion scene and raising the hopes of ascending fashion and business at the upcoming WIFW.
