Festive wear to dominate LFW runway

Mumbai: Last season the focus was on resort wear and this time, the Lakmé Fashion Week (LFW) will put the spotlight on festive wear with 74 designers and 12 sponsors participating in the gala event starting here Friday.

"Lakmé Fashion Week stands for quality and high standards of excellence in designer participation which is epitomised by the talent we endorse at Lakmé Fashion Week. The strategic shift we initiated last season with introduction of resort wear in India continues as we now tailor our upcoming season to focus on festive wear," Anil Chopra, CEO, Lakmé Lever, told reporters. Designers will use the LFW platform to showcase winter-festive collections and this season will also celebrate renowned designers like Manish Arora and Ritu Kumar`s maiden stint on the LFW runway. Returning LFW patrons such as Anita Dongre, Anand Kabra, Anupama Dayal, Krishna Mehta, Manish Malhotra, Neeta Lulla, Satya Paul and Troy Costa round up the 74 designers participating in the event that will take place at the Grand Hyatt. For the finale, Malini Ramani will bring the curtains down with her gypsy collection. "The gypsy collection is based on Lakme`s winter palette dedicated to the gypsy within all of us. The Lakme Grand Finale will see me working through a completely new point of view in the colours and influences that are impacting my journey though this collection. The gypsy spirit has caught me and I feel I am journeying beyond my familiar space in ways that have taken me by surprise as well," Malani told reporters. The other highlights of the five-day event include a special Gen Next 5 Year Show celebrating the spirit of defining the future of fashion where designers Aneeth Arora, Anuj Sharma, Kallol Datta, Kunal Rawal, Nachiket Barve, Nitin Bal Chauhan, Rahul Mishra, Rimzim Dadu, Sailex Ngairangbam and Swapnil Shinde will showcase their creations. As far as the sponsors are concerned, LFW, has garnered support from mobile services provider Aircel, fashion trade portal Fashion and You, Skoda Auto, Philips, Killer Jeans, DHL, iNIFD, Kingfisher, Tres´Mode and Stylekandy while Hotel Grand Hyatt, Mumbai remains the official venue and hospitality partner. "Fashion And You is delighted to be associated as the online retail partner to LFW. Our endeavour through this two year partnership with Lakme Fashion Week is to tap the potential that the online medium presents to the business of fashion in India and we are confident that this is the perfect opportunity to successfully usher in a new dynamic on to the online fashion retail sector," said Pear Uppal, CEO, Fashion And You. Since fashion and Bollywood go hand in hand, a heavy dose of B-town celebs is not ruled out. IANS