Models at Monday?s fashion show. Picture by Rashbehari Das

The Time: Just past 9 pm on Monday.

The Venue: A club in south Calcutta.

The Scene: A fashion show has just begun on the makeshift ramp, after a 90-minute wait. The first sequence features creations by designer Niki Mahajan (whom the choreographer introduces as Niki ?Aneja?). The senior designer is almost reduced to tears at the appalling quality of production ? out-of-shape models, bad choreography, poor backstage coordination, stop-and-start music and even song-and-dance fillers.

The Impact: Niki decides to pull out of the exhibition scheduled for the following day and resolves never to work with a Calcutta event manager again.

That was just a glimpse of the fashion fracas that unfolded at Uncommon Wardrobe, a ramp show featuring the fall-winter collections of designers Niki Mahajan from Delhi and Azeem Khan from Mumbai, along with a host of wannabes from Calcutta. Beyond the ramp, there were reports of frayed tempers involving the models and the choreographer over money matters. All in all, the city proved once again that it flops miserably when it comes to hosting a made-in-Calcutta fashion show.

?The biggest problem with fashion shows here is that they have no focus at all. They are still viewed as entertainment events and the organiser is just interested in making money by selling entry tickets. So the quality of production is terribly weak,? feels designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee, who has stopped saying yes to shows in Calcutta unless organised by a big banner like Stylefile.

The frivolous attitude towards fashion shows results in absurdly low budgets dished out by sponsors. This hits the technical aspect of a ramp affair where it hurts. ?Show organisers here work on such low budgets that they end up compromising on music, light and choreography. The models are paid a fraction of what their counterparts get in Mumbai and Delhi, hence the good ones move out of Calcutta. We hardly have any good model left here,? complains Sabyasachi.

The payment of models had flagged off Monday?s mayhem. Said Neeraj Surana, one of the catwalkers: ?We were supposed to get paid before the show started, which is usually the norm. When we were asked to wait till December 14, we lost our cool.?

Neeraj points out that organisers often opt for wannabe catwalkers to cut corners. ?There are some upcoming models who do shows for free or ask for 25 per cent of an established model?s fees. And most organisers here are not concerned about quality.?

Model Shonal Rawat feels the entire package of a show here is all wrong. ?I have rarely come across a show by a Calcutta organiser with a backstage co-ordinator or helpers to assist the models change. The clothes are littered on the floor and the models are asked to pick and wear whatever fits them.?

The other eyesore, Shonal points out, is killing time between sequences with dance performances. ?In no other metro would you find this. Instead of 15 to 16 models required, Calcutta organisers make do with only eight or nine, and so back-to-back sequences are not possible.?