Anamika Khanna’s fall-winter 2007 collection on the New Delhi ramp.

Calcutta, London, Paris. City designer Anamika Khanna is going places. After stealing the Day II show at the New Delhi fashion week with her fall-winter 2007 collection, she is set to be the first Indian designer to showcase at Paris Fashion Week On Schedule Ramp.

Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI) and Didier Grumbach, president, Federation Francaise de la Couture Du Pret-a-Porter des Couturiers et des Createurs de Mode, have confirmed Anamika’s participation, along with Delhi-based Manish Arora, in the first week of October.

“Didier Grumbach came to my stall during the Delhi fashion week and went through my garments. He only said: ‘You are ready’,” smiles Anamika, “thrilled” at the thought of being Paris-bound.

This marks a first for Indian designers participating independently in the Paris Fashion Week On Schedule Ramp. The “real” show, stresses Anamika, is not to be confused with the pret-a-porter exhibitions in Paris.

“Anamika is a talented designer and she — along with Manish Arora — I am sure, will make the Indian fashion fraternity proud,” Rathi Vinay Jha, director-general, FDCI, announced on Monday afternoon.

Anamika is quite a global pro already, with four London Fashion Week showings under her stylish belt. That was four seasons ago.

The euphoria and the excitement — at the prospect of a Paris showing — remain. What has changed, is her style statement.

The designer with a flagship studio on Outram Street reveals that she is “much better at silhouettes and pattern-making” now.

Grumbach may have been convinced that Anamika was “ready” to take the Paris plunge, but the designer herself is in a bit of a flap.

“It’s not easy at all. Too many things, like sponsors, PR agents and the collection, have to be looked into. For them, it’s a new product and I am just a new kid on the block out there,” points out Anamika.

“The new product” will, in fact, be a “brand new line full of signature Anamika elements, like unique fabric development”.

For those eyeing a sneak peek at the spring-summer 2008 collection that Anamika will unveil in the French fashion hub, she is not telling, simply because she doesn’t know it herself.

“I have to figure out the weight of the collection, an acceptable and unique fabric texture with the right price points. It is difficult to get a striking look with summer’s soft and washed-out palette,” she explains.

Apart from loyal buyers, Anamika has admirers within the fashion fraternity, near and far. If colleagues like Sabyasachi Mukherjee “just love her style sensibility”, Tina Tahiliani, the face of Ensemble, lists her among her “favourite designers”.