Debut fashion shows are intense, awkward and memorable. So memorable, that designers remember those appetite jolting jitters long after their first wave and curtsey. "I was 21 when I took my first bow, and I remember everyone in the audience thinking I was a little girl who lost her way on the ramp!" the petite powerhouse Rimzim Dadu had told mid-day in an earlier interview.

Dadu's debut in 2007 at Lakmé Fashion Week (LFW) GenNext show was something of a milestone. Not only did it announce her line, which was immediately noticed by major multi-designer stores, it also marked a shift in the Indian fashion landscape. A decade later, Saaksha Bhat and her sister-in-law Kinnari Kamat launched Saaksha & Kinni on the same platform, their label's ideology rooted in modern clothes for women driven by optimism and freedom. "Awkward," is how Bhat describes the emotion when she and Kamat walked the ramp.