lt had everything — glam, glitz, ambience. And everyone from the who's who of Mumbai's top-notch social circuit of the film world (Karan Johar with mom Hiroo Johar, Ritesh Deshmukh, Twinkle Kapadia, Simi Garewal, Suzanne Roshan, Adhuna Akthar and several others) to industrialists (Kokila Ambani mother of Mukesh and Anil Ambani, the Birla clan — Kumar Mangalam with cousins Yash and Avanti Birla and a whole lot of others) plus top models both ex and current and jewellery designers were there.

It was a week-long rendezvous of the uber rich who are way above the usual Page 3 glam crowd. They were present either to lend their support to their designer friends or just to let their hair down. It was the country's first couture week — the HDIL India Couture Week.
And showcasing their designs were Indian design gurus Ritu Kumar, Tarun Tahiliani, J.J. Valaya, Anamika Khanna, Varun Bahl, Manav Gangwani, Suneet Varma, Ashis Soni, Rohit Bal and Pallavi Jaikishen.
But “Baat kuch jami nahin yaar...” was how a

photo-journalist put it as the crowd dispersed after curtains came down with Rohit Bal's show. Even Bal's impromptu jig after the finale showcasing his creations at the Grand Hyatt in Mumbai didn't get any standing ovation from the crowd.

Indias first couture week somehow couldn't even cause a ripple on the otherwise glam byte-hungry electronic media. Even the print media was mum. Perhaps the timing was wrong as every media house is busy catching up with so many natural and man-made calamities across the globe — bomb blasts in Delhi, Islamabad and severe flooding in Bihar and Orissa.Even the designs were much below expectations.

For some reason it appeared as though the designers put up the show to meet the round-the-corner festive deadlines — Eid-ul-Fitr, Dassera and Diwali. The dresses were rich, opulent, heavily embroidered with Swarovski crystals, gold zardozi, many using semi-precious stones and very bright-coloured fabrics.

The week started with Delhi-based design diva Ritu Kumar's show. Kumar is also celebrating 40 years in the world of fashion and her style and dresses showed the reason for the respect she commands. And perhaps it is this deference that she commands from everyone that got her yesteryear super models Anna Bredmayer, Noyonika Chatterjee, Shyamolee Verma walk the ramp for her. Besides, she had a host of other Bollywood stars like Raima Sen, Neha Dhupia model for her. The showstopper was Priyanka Chopra dressed in a green and vermillion lehnga. Though it looked brilliant and eye-catching, it reminded onlookers of the lehnga worn by Aishwarya Rai in the song Kajra Re from the film Bunty Aur Babli.

That was one of the drawbacks of the couture week. There was not much of new design, fabric or style. Almost everyone seemed to have borrowed ideas from the Mughal period, Elizabethan era or Rajput style.

Kumar's show itself was set against the backdrop of Jaisalmer (Rajasthan) Fort. The one thing that stands out with Kumar's designs is the rich Indian fabric that she uses in black and gold. She worked with dabka, mukesh and a range of metallic embellishments. She had beautifully crafted silhouettes for evening gowns, choghas, long tunics, Kutchi-gathered coats worn over divided loose pants.

Ritu Kumar said, “The colour and sensuous quality of what is exotic in Indian clothing comes through with vigour and a sense of bindaas style which is rejuvenating the traditional conventional norm with its bohemian take on fashion.”

The one thing that stood out in this couture week and which may set a trend is the long tailcoat blouse worn over a sari. Fabrics such as velvet, woven silks, brocade resplendent with gold threadwork ruled the ramp and may just as well dominate the present festive season.

Varun Bahl blended vintage and contemporary, antique with something new. His tailcoat blouses over saris were a hit. Varun along with Manish Malhotra and Pallavi Jaikishen were designers who, for a change, didn't get any showstoppers. As Ritu Kumar had Priyanka Chopra, Anamika Khanna had Sonam Kapoor, Karishma Kapur walked the ramp for Manav Gangawani and the sultry Shilpa Shetty did it for Tarun Tahiliani. But the best showstopper was not from the glam world but from the sports world — the bronze medal winner at the recent Olympics, Vijendar Singh.

Tarun Tahiliani was disappointing. He had chiffon saris with the same old diamante belts that he has showcased earlier, too. His chikan garments reminded one of the other designer duo Abu Jani-Sandeep Khosla's penchants for the fabric. Tahiliani's brocade line and riveting gold lehngas with three dimensional floral embroidery uplifted his show. Shilpa Shetty, his showstopper, looked ethereally beautiful in a heavily-worked zardozi lehnga studded with semi-precious stones. Complimenting the dress was the polki neckpiece. She looked good but too thin.

Haute couture all over the world means fine dressmaking, perfectly fitting garments with exquisite embroidery and superb finish. All these points were evident in Manish Malhotra's dresses. He didn't get any film personalities to walk the ramp for him. His models were dressed as brides and the attire made them look demure.

Manish was at his best in menswear comprising a collection of sherwanis. They were superbly cut, fitting the models as though they were stitched on them. He used fabric quilting and origami very well. But the silhouette was disappointing as it looked repetitive.

The 60-plus Pallavi Jaikishen came back to the ramp after a hiatus of 30 years. Known as the original couture queen of India, this was her first-ever show in a fashion week. She presented a beautiful collection titled La Vie Est Belle. It was a journey that started in Europe and ended in the heart of Rajasthan. Yards and yards of gossamer silk, tulle and beautiful roses in shades of flesh pink to full-blown rouge and maroon, of silver and gold lame dusted with crystals and gilded with gold cords. Her signature roses were entwined with traditional gota to create fantasy.

Pallavi's collection consisted of both saris and lehngas. For the European section, the lehngas were turned into ball gowns with stoles replacing dupattas. She used fabrics like tulle, lame, duchess satin and lace. Jaikishen used abundant silver, gold, pale pinks, blues and soft greens. The embroidery was in French tape, crystals and embroidered petit point flowers.

“I prefer fabrics that breathe and can be comfortably worn in the Indian climate,” she said, and that is why she loves working with pure silks, chiffons and georgettes.

The young designer Manav Gangwani presented An Autumn Sonata. Sheetal Malhar and actor Rahul Khanna added the glamour quotient to his collections. And of course Karishma Kapoor was his showstopper resplendent in a red (read gaudy) intricately embroidered kurta with plenty of crystals and zardozi work. Karishma looked good but the dress.... “Haute couture is the symbolic triumph of costume and fashion. India Couture Week is providing a platform to the country's most magnificent designers as a gateway to let their imagination run amok and present their creativity at its best,” said designer Manav Gangwani.