Haute and Hotter

Chaos, drama, glamour, eccentricitiesu00a0... what's a fashion week without these? BFW had it all

The first edition of Bangalore Fashion Week started off in pretty much the same way as other fashion weeks in India: Late.

Slated to start at 12 noon, the curtains rose a good two hours later at Hotel Ottera after much scurrying around by choreographer Sheetal Sharma, clad in red tracks and tees.

Asked about the delay, Sheetal quickly replied, "No fashion week across India starts on time. And this is the first one in Bangalore. There are bound to be teething problems. But overall, everything is taken care of."

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Salad of seasons

In keeping with Bangalore's weather, the seasons came all mixed up at the Blender's Pride BFW. The organisers wrongly said it was Spring-Summer 2008, while some designers showcased Fall-Winter 2009.

First on the ramp were Delhi-based designers Abhi&Rahul who called their Autumn-Winter 2009 collection Definitely Maybe.

Their creations were all about power dressing: Dark, stark and inspired. And then came the showstopper's grey outfit with a lot of shimmer. Put simply, this was a fashion disaster.

Next was Zubin Vakil's Spring-Summer 2010. We saw signature sassiness and hippy dresses, flounced and furbelow flamencou00a0 skirts, tiny jacket frocklets with self-fabricated detailing, wraps, cowls, pleats and textures in a lot of bright yellows and reds.u00a0

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We loved the geometrical pink-patterned short dresses. And Zubin's kiss to the showstopper model and to every single model in the grand finale. Zubin, dressed in denim shorts and a Audrey Hepburn shirt, yellow, knee-length socks and red shoes, was accompanied by partner Anil. The duo looked every bit the cute couple. Mwuuuuuah!

Abdul Halder, who showcased his work in Bangalore for the first time, rocked the ramp with his wicked line.

Namrata G was the only Bangalore-based designer on Day 1. Her collection comprised knee-high dresses in geometric patterns, floral prints and bright hues.u00a0 She roped in actors Anu Prabhakar, Diganth, Kiran, Meghna, Pankaj Advani, Manish Pandey and model Imtiaz to show off her outfits.

"A part of my collection is inspired by the Swinging 60s in reds, blacks, greys and whites. I have also used some cholis in a subtle way with a hint of sex appeal," she said.

Chaos

Apart from the fashion, there was quite a bit of drama. And lack of it. Gouri Kapur, who was responsible for the make-up and styling, looked quite hassled. "I'm scavenging around to check on some coffee for the models. It's frantic backstage and the models don't have any coffee to keep them going."

We also spotted DJ Sasha selecting songs on his laptop for the after-party. The only problem was he didn't know where exactly it was to be held. "It's somewhere at Hotel Ottera, but I don't exactly know where."

Very helpful, that!