Stars of the ramp

The curtain rose yesterday for India’s top 11 designers to showcase splendour of design and craftsmanship at the FDCI India Couture Week (ICW) 2016, a five-day fashion extravaganza. With top Bollywood celebrities walking the ramp for different designers, industry experts tell us about the special sheen that celebrities bring in to their collection.

The gala event opened with Bollywood’s favourite designer Manish Malhotra showcasing his collection titled ‘The Persian Story’. The collection reinvented couture line by celebrating old-world embroidery, ancestral Indian trends and Persian influences. While actor Fawad Khan opened his show, actress Deepika Padukone closed it.

Director and actress Divya Khosla Kumar will be seen walk the ramp for designer Reynu Taandon. She will be showcasing her collection ‘Kamangari’ inspired from the beauty and grandeur of Rajasthan. The designer believes that fashion and Bollywood share a symbiotic relationship. She says, “Many of the celebrities fit perfectly as showstoppers as they carry off the silhouettes with great style and elegance.” Her collection focuses on modern bride who not only wishes to retain her originality but also reflects the intensity of emotions through the silhouettes she adorns. Reynu adds, “I chose Divya Khosla because I think she would perfectly represent a girl who redefines the conventional bride with all that is modern along with an imperial twist.”

Globally, fashion-conscious youngsters look up to celebrities as their style icons, states designer-duo Rimple and Harpreet Narula. They share, “Bollywood has always been a style beacon in our country, right from the days of the ever-graceful Waheeda Rehman to current day female actors. Generations of young women have looked up to them and emulated their styles. These industries are two sides of the same coin and having a Bollywood celebrity walk for the show does enhance the impact on both the audience and the consumer.”

The duo is showcasing a collection titled ‘Hiraeth’, a tale of travel and transcendence, inspired from their love for old textiles and their sublime leitmotifs. Their collection is a world traveller’s take on clothes that is rooted for a longing to return home. Talking about their showstopper Yami Gautam, they say, “Yami is young, talented, has done some very interesting work in both Hindi and regional cinema. She has a unique sense of style. With Yami we have a home connect — she being from Chandigarh and us hailing from Ludhiana — we have always had a soft corner for her. In the past too, she She has worn our clothes with great aplomb, and we felt she was the perfect muse for this collection.”

Sunil Sethi, president, FDCI feels having a showstopper or a muse is a personal choice of the designer. He shares, “For me, the designers and their garments are the showstoppers as they have been working on the couture collection for a long time. These designs are their dreams. Creations of the designers will be so endearing that the audience will forget if there is Bollywood presence or not. If the celebrity has been the muse of the designer or closely associated with him/her, and adds a certain amount of opulence and grandeur to the overall look, then why not have a celebrity walk the ramp. There is always a recall value, in case a big star is wearing your clothes. It is totally a personal choice of the designer to have someone from the film industry as a showstopper or not. Ultimately, outfits are bought on the basis of the creativity of the designs.”

Designer Varun Bahl who is bringing back floral fantasy with his couture collection, says that design and concept is what matters. “A celebrity showstopper is not essential to a successful show, but I’m not averse to the idea either if it suits the concept of the collection,” he points out.