WIFW A/W ’10 to be tracked on twitter and Facebook

Wills Lifestyle, ITC’s premium fashion brand has recruited celebrity and jewelry designer Farah Khan Ali to be the ‘Wills Twitter Face’ for this edition of the fashion week. This will entail Farah Ali Khan warming the front row benches across the shows at the upcoming fashion week, aka Gul Panang who did the same last year. Farah made the grade by virtue of being a regular twitter with a following of over 13,000. She promises to not only share her views of the ramp shows, but also upload pics and respond to tweets. Log in @FarahKhanAli.

Wills has declared that supermodel Sheetal Mallar will be the ‘Wills Celebrity Photographer at WIFW A-W, 2010, She will shoot behind the scenes images, green rooms and all, and post it on Facebook. All those who may not there, will not miss out on any of the action.

WIFW A/W ’10 to showcase 130 designers

The 15th edition of FDCI’s fashion weeks, the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week (WIFW) Autumn-Winter (AW) 2010, witnessed a phenomenal increase in applicants. The event being held at the NSIC exhibition complex, Okhla-New Delhi from March 24th to 28th will have miscellanies of 130 blended designers, presenting their collections. In order to accommodate this large number, FDCI has decided to add at least 5-9 more shows to WIFW's existing 38 shows. The move was welcomed by the young and new designers who will get to show for the first time.

Madonna to design MDG sunglass collection with D&G

The evergreen, ageing pop queen Madonna will launch a collection of sunglasses, the MDG line, that she is putting together in collaboration with Dolce and Gabbana (D&G), the Italian fashion house. As part of the collaboration between the singer and D&G’s designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, the duo will be the face of the MDG ad campaign. First of the six styles are to be launched in May and will bear the MDG logo. This is Madonna’s first attempt at the eyewear markets. She had previously collaborated with high street brand Hennes & Mauritz clothing line.

Where would Tamara Mellon stock her shoes?

It is obvious that Tamara Mellon, founder of the Jimmy Choo label, would own a lot of shoes, the numbers revealed were in the range of 800 and counting. And where does she store this collection? In very, very large closets, of about 15x23ft wide, with angled shelves, in rows of two deep-for half the collection only. This is the new ‘shoe closet’ that Mellon created when she acquired a 7,140 sqft penthouse duplex, where she had to break down a wall to accommodate the growing tribe. She does own a pair of Ugg boots and a few Nike sneakers besides the Jimmy Choo shoes.

Designer Prabal Gurung lives the American dream

Prabal Gurung, the designer from Nepal who trained at NIFT Delhi and subsequently at the Parsons School of Design, is happy that Michelle Obama chose to wear one of his creations , a black and white sleeveless dress with brush painted roses, when she went to donate her inaugural gown to the Smithsonian Museum of American History. Obama’s ability to spot young and talented designers has been most rewarding for the chosen ones. Jason Wu, designer of the inaugural gown is already a well known name. Prabal Gurung won the Fashion Group International’s rising star award this year along with Joseph Altuzarra. He has been making waves at the Mercedes Benz Fashion Weeks in New York.

Return of Christian Lacroix

The creative and quirky French designer Christian Lacroix suffered a huge set back when his namesake label declared bankruptcy last year. The indefatigable designer is back again, this time working with different products to showcase his creativity. As per reports in the WWD, the designer has signed deals for four collections - to be launched in September will be his sunglasses range in collaboration with Mondottica of Hong Kong and Lacroix branded stationery that will be introduced by Libretto Holdings of New York. Next year he will release his home textiles range together with England’s Designer Guild. First to hit the market, in June will be a range of ‘decorative wood panels’ as a B to B venture for decorators.

The upcoming edition of Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2010 will have Handset major Spice Mobiles as the new ‘Gold Partner’. The brand will launch its exclusive range of cutting edge handsets at WIFW, which venturing into the new world of technology. As a gold partner Spice Mobiles will also be sponsoring a show for prominent fashion designer Anjana Bhargav's renowned label ANKY.

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Martin Margiela is a Belgian fashion designer who trained at Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts. He worked for Jean Paul Gaultier before launching his label in 1989. He became the creative director of Hermès women’s line in 1997. He rebelled against the luxurious fashion world by designing garments of oversized proportions such as long arms, and with linings, seams and hems on the outside.. Margiela's brand was acquired by the Diesel brand in 2002. He was a reclusive person who left the firm without anyone knowing why.

Laurence Dacade is the hot new French shoe designer who is ready to launch her own line. She started out designing for such big labels as Chanel, Givenchy, Christian Lacroix and Karl Lagerfeld. She is often described as ‘the designer after our own heart’ for her philosophy that subscribes to the fact that there is ‘no need to suffer for beauty’. Yet her styles are sexy and elegant and chic.

The Mahatama Gandhi Labor Institute (MGLI) in Ahemdabad identified a critical issue, that of lack of awareness among the handicraft workers about all noble schemes launched for their welfare by the Government of India. To address this issue, MGLI held a workshop and training program that was attended by over 60 workers from the regions around Ahmedabad. On the first day, the artisans were told about the benefits they could avail under Rajiv Gandhi Shilpi Swasthya Bima Yojana. Gujarat State Handloom and Handicrafts Development Corporation (GSHHDC) Assistant Manager P F Vankar informed the artisans about such schemes as the highly subsidized insurance schemes (up to 85%), educational backing for their children, accident benefits up to Rs100,000 and medical assistance extended to the family, The scheme is offering Rs60lakhs for the 40 clusters across the state of Gujarat developed by GSHHDC which include tie-and-dye, embroidery and woodcarving clusters. Vankar revealed that GSHHDC finds it difficult to spread awareness about the scheme among artisans as it takes care of only individual artisans and not co-operatives. On the second day of this training program, faculties from renowned institutes like the National Institute of Fashion Technology and the National Institute of Design offered advice to the workers regarding product improvement.

A common fallacy is to equate size with success and achievement. And so it is with FDCI’s Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week. Every year we hear of what is more on the table in numbers. In the forthcoming event, a record number of 43 shows have been squeezed into five days with over 70 designers on the runway and a total 130 in stalls. Quite expectedly there have been rumblings from some senior designers that they are being made to rub shoulders with debutantes and insignificant designers. They contend that while the bottom end certainly gets a ‘lift’ on sharing the platform, their own presentation gets diluted. There is some merit to this allegation. If indeed the participants in this industry have grown manifold, specialised platforms need to be developed. In fact this would be in the FDCI’s mandate to keep WIFW with tight controls as the real apex of Indian fashion while giving others a chance in other forums.

We are happy to hear that Rohit Bal is out of hospital and recuperating. Gudda, as he is affectionately called, is the very epitome of the popular view of the high flying Indian designer – very artistic and talented but also an endemic party-goer, high boozer and a late-nighter. We hear that Rohit had reduced many of these activities before his serious health issue. We do hope that in time to come he comes out to speak of the dangers of such excess for the sake of the new crop of designers and industry watchers who hold him in awe!