Lakme Fashion Week 2011: Sabyasachi Mukherjee

Sabyasachi Mukherjee concluded Day One of the Lakme Fashion Week (LFW) with a collection inspired by Aircel's corporate social responsibility project "Save The Tiger". This time, the designer's main clients Rani Mukerji and Vidya Balan skipped the event, making it a a no-celebrity event.

Starting the show with a line of yellow, black and ivory tones inspired by the colours of the Indian tiger, Sabyasachi presented a collection that moved through the various decades of fashion. AFP
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Strong international presence at LFW opening show

The Lakme Fashion Week (LFW) Summer/Resort 2011 kickstarted here Friday with a gen next show and apart from talent from India, international designers too had a strong presence at the event. Designer Aki Narula says they got loads of applications from foreigners and selected whoever they thought had talent and would continue doing so.

 The show comprised collections put together by upcoming fashion designers like Deepti Pruthi, Manas Dash, Shivaji Dutta, Timsy Kamboj and Siddhartha Mittal. It also had designs of Eurasian duo Anna and Liza and Germany-born Miriam Strehlau, who is presently based out of Goa.

Aki Narula, who has mentored the team, said: "Because of the awareness of LFW, loads of applications came down and some were from international designers too. We selected whoever we thought had talent.

"We will try to make this a continuing trend. I would like to make the show bigger next year. We might have more gen next designers showcasing next year from all over the world maybe," he added.

What was showcased were the original ideas of the designers, with Narula only mentoring them.

"We got a lot of applications and then we selected this team. We short-listed basically on the basis of the ideas and the design philosophy, so the ideas were totally theirs. I just helped them implement it," he said.

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Yuvika Chaudhury to be showstopper for Sabah Khan at LFW

Actress Yuvika Chaudhury, who featured in the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer "Om Shanti Om", will walk the ramp at the Lakme Fashion Week (LFW) for designer Sabah Khan.

"Yuvika Chaudhury would be my showstopper and she has never dressed in this style before. She has always worn classic dresses. But what she would be wearing for the show, would be very funky," Khan told IANS.

Yuvika, who has been part of films like "Summer 2007", "Toh Baat Pakki" and will also be seen in upcoming Govinda-starrer "Naughty @40", will walk the ramp for Khan's "Tuk Tuk On Linen" collection.

Apart from the fact that the young actress is Khan's friend, the designer also chose Yuvika because she could not afford to get a bigger star for her show.

"I have just graduated from NIFD (International Institute of Fashion Design) so, from an emerging designer's point of view, I don't have the contacts and the backing where I can afford to give a grand fees to a big star to be my showstopper. Yuvika is a very dear friend and fits in very well, so I decided on her," said the 21-year-old designer.

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