(From top): Rahul Bose (centre), Aditi Govitrikar and others at the Bombay Gymkhana; a model shows off a Faiza Samee creation; a model in a Pink Banana shirt at Seven; Kalyani Chawla, Sheila Dixit and guests at the 50x30 art exhibition

In Delhi, a Pakistani designer won applause for her creations even as a high-profile exhibition drew art connoisseurs by the dozen. In Mumbai, rugby and fashion made an unlikely pairing while it was all about shirts and style at a lounge bar in the city.

Pakistan pioneer

She?s the Ritu Kumar of Pakistan. But last week Faiza Samee, one of Pakistan?s pioneering designers was on show at Carma in the Capital. Rich jewel colours like burgundy and coral dominated the do as the designer showcased a range of salwar kameezes and gararas, Indo-Westerns and, for the first time ever, saris. The saris started from Rs 9,800 onwards.

Samee swears by haute couture, refuses to do pr?twear and knows the intricate ins and outs of the Indian fashion scene. ?I have been visiting India since 1995, so I?m very aware of the needs of the Indian consumers,? she said.

Samee has a clutch of firsts to her credit. Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto wore Samee?s creations for her wedding. Her designs have been on show at London?s Victoria and Albert Museum and the Royal Museum of Scotland. And now her clothes are all the rage with the Capital?s beautiful people.

The art of numbers

It sounds like a name chosen by a numerologist. But 50x30 was simply an art exhibition that showed 50 canvases by 30 leading artists. The show in Delhi organised by art curator Alakananda Saha and her daughter, entrepreneur Kalyani Chawla featured artists from across the country including Satish Gujral, Anjolie Ela Menon and a younger group like Sanjay Bhattacharya and Yusuf.

The exhibition was inaugurated by Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit (despite a broken foot), and attended by art enthusiasts, art buyers and of course, the usual Delhi gliteratti. The showing comprised works in oil, water and other mixed media. The canvases on show included Chintan Upadhyay?s mix of acrylic and oil, charcoal, ink and pencil sketches by Anjolie Ela Menon, Tyeb Mehta?s water colours, C. Jagdish?s sculptures in papier-m?ch? and Mona Rai?s use of mixed media on canvas.

Said Kalyani Chawla, ?With 50x30, both my mother and I are attempting to gather some masterpieces on canvas under one roof for the patrons of fine art.?

The exhibition also showcased works by Manisha Gera Baswani, Amitava Das, Sunil Das, Yashwant Deshmukh, Kalicharan Gupta, Subodh Gupta, Reena Kallat, Chitravanu Mazumdar, Jaideep Mehrotra, Suhas Nimbalkar and Ganesh Pyne among others.

Shirt shift

How do you launch a new line of shirts for the fashion-conscious male? That?s simple: make sure they are worn by a bevy of young beauties and team the shirts with short, short mini-skirts. That was how Vinayak Garments ? best known for its Karma range of T-shirts ? made sure that its new Pink Banana range of shirts got the full attention of the audience a few nights ago.

The launch party at Bandra?s new lounge bar, Seven was brimming with party animals out to make the most of a Friday night. The event began with a dance performance followed by a fashion show. Former model and aspiring actor, Apurva Daavda who has been signed up as a brand ambassador for the label, swaggered around the dance floor showing off a number of snazzy Pink Banana shirts.

Fashion show complete, the dance floor at the lounge bar was taken over by guests who boogied till the early hours of the morning.

Fashion scrum

It was an unusual combination: a rugby team, a top fashion designer and, finally, one of the country?s leading mobile phone companies. That was the mix at a fashion show held at the Bombay Gymkhana to launch a new partnership between the Indian Rugby Football Union and Hutch. The phone company will be putting its money into the sport of scrums and rough tackles and in return the national team will now become the Hutch Indian Rugby Team.

Hutch clearly wants to inject new style into the game and has hired ace designer Tarun Tahiliani to design the team?s official jersey. The orange and white jersey (in keeping with Hutch?s logo colour) was displayed for the first time at the show in which top models shared the ramp with India?s foremost rugby players ? ok, ok so they aren?t a world-beating team but what the heck!

Winning the most applause was rugby team member and actor Rahul Bose who posed happily for the cameras alongside model Aditi Govitrikar. And the fashion show was followed by skit set in a locker-room in which the team took off their shirts ? yes, that was all ? and flung water over themselves cracking some locker-room jokes.

Said Tahiliani, ?It?s an honour to design the jersey with the symbol of the Indian flag. The design is aerodynamic with white stripes and fine orange piping reflecting the flag and colours of Hutch to blaze them in a trail of glory.?

Photograph of Rahul Bose and Aditi Govitrikar by Gajanan Dudhalkar