LAKME FASHION WEEK-A CURTAIN RAISER

Lakme Fashion Week Summer Resort 2010 kick-starts today. And the Gen Next segment on Tuesday will see a host of debutant designers take to the ramp for the first time in their careers. We caught up with debutants from last season’s (six months back) Gen Next designers and almost all of the six participants seem to have gotten off to a flying start.

Actor Neena Gupta’s daughter Masaba launched her own label and line Kattran by Masaba. Her designs had created sufficient buzz even before her official debut. A thundering applause and tonnes of praise later, Masaba now retails her line in eight stores across the country. “Aza and Zoya in Mumbai and Delhi, Fuel in Mumbai and Nautanki in Ahmedabad are a few of the stores where my designs retail,” says Masaba.

Bollywood fan followingShe has her fair share of fan following among B-towners too. “Ila and Ishita Arun among others have taken a liking to my designs. My mom wears them all the time too,” says the young designer, adding that she hasn’t approached any celebrity to flaunt her creations at events. “All of them have picked my designs from stores on their own,” she beams admitting that when Bollywood celebrities are seen wearing a particular design, it becomes a trend that is widely followed by the youth.

Lokhandwala girl Sabbah Sharma recently opened her flagship store in Juhu and boasts of umpteen celebrities wearing her creations. “Dia Mirza, Soha Ali Khan, Sushmita Sen, Sameera Reddy and Genelia D’Souza are some of the celebs who have worn my creations,” says Sharma. “My designs are labour-oriented, which is why I cannot afford to be in a rush and promise 10 stores that I will deliver,” says the budding designer who for the moment, is concentrating on the content in her flagship boutique, apart from supplying to stores like Attic, Zoya and Ogaan.

Shreya Sharma and Nirali Vora of the brand Shrea also made their debut in LFW ’09 and are now retailing to “Kimaya, Zoya, Ora in Nagpur, Studio Saks in Chennai and Areliya in Pune. In the Middle-East Shrea is available boutiques in Dubai, Ginger and Lace in Kuwait and Soho in Egypt,” says Nirali.

Rahul Anand and Amalraj Sengupta are taking it slow and have a couple of high-end boutiques on their resume while Mehak Jain, after a successful show at the LFW, is in the process of studying the intricacies of fashion designing abroad. “I will come back and then promote my label in a big way,” says Jain.

All the designers, however, assert that after the adulation fades and the accolades die out, it is tough for them to sustain. “Though my designs were critically acclaimed, most stores want me to replicate them on Indian silhouettes. But I am in no mood to succumb,” says Anand who, fingers crossed, will soon inaugurate his own fashion studio in Delhi.
--WRITTEN BY SUJATA REDDY(of Hindustan Times)