Ritu Beri: Grand finale

Calcutta, Feb. 6: Lakme today cleared the cloud hovering over its fashion week and released its official list of participating designers, which is coated with the cr?me de la cr?me.

Lakme recently split with the Fashion Design Council of India, whose India Fashion Week the cosmetic brand used to sponsor.

For the past few months, the fashion fraternity had been agog with questions on who would side with whom.

Contrary to speculation, some top couturiers will be part of Lakme’s show ? Manish Malhotra, Wendell Rodricks, Suneet Verma (who will be represented through the brand Tuscan Verve), Anshu Arora Sen, Priyadarshini Rao and Sonam Dubal have given their word.

But the icing on the cake comes in the form of Ritu Beri, who will be doing the Grande Finale collection.

The fashion week will be held in Mumbai between March 28 and April 1. “I am very happy with the list that has shaped up. We have some of the top designers of the country. Not just that, we also have an impressive list of emerging designers. It has always been our philosophy to give emerging designers a platform to showcase and we are happy to be doing that,” Anil Chopra, the vice-president of Lakme Lever, said.

The list of fresh faces includes Dev and Nil from Calcutta, Anupama Dayal, Arjun Saluja, Nandita Mahtani, Nikasha Tawadey, Shahzad Kalim of Lakme Fashion House fame and Surily Goel, who have made it among 28 applicants. Another set of six for the GeNext category, featuring budding talents who do not have a label yet, will be announced soon.

Ritu Beri’s participation is a feather in the show’s cap, considering that the designer has participated in the FDCI-hosted India Fashion Week only once in the six years of its existence ? in 2000.

“Ritu Beri will design the fashion statement for the finale. She will work on Lakme’s theme for the season that we will announce soon,” Chopra said.

While for some designers Mumbai’s vibrant fashion market has been a deciding factor, others decided to go for this show because of the brands IMG, the event production house, and Lakme.

“Since I am Mumbai-based and have launched my label here, it obviously makes more sense for me to participate in the Lakme Fashion Week in Mumbai,” said Malhotra, Bollywood’s favourite designer.

For Delhi-based Anshu Arora Sen, Mumbai’s market was the main draw. “Mumbai has always been a good market for me. Not only do I sell well here, all my shows in Mumbai are very successful.”

She added: “IMG were the event architects for India Fashion Week and Lakme was the main sponsor for the past six years. And so it’s proven that both the companies can organise a fashion week very successfully.”