The Chimera 2011 Fashion Show which was held at a suburban hotel last night had some truly interesting and unusual designs on display by the graduating students of Wigan and Leigh College. The avant-garde designs were judged by industry biggies like Nachiket Barve, Pradeep Hirani, Shaina NC, James Ferriera and Leena Tipnis.
The fifteen collections were brought to life on the ramp by well-known models like Nehtra Raghuraman, Shamita Singha, Sucheta Sharma, Dipti Gujral, Binal Trevedi, and Kabir amongst others. Celebrity models included TV actors Deepshika Nagpal and Shama Sikandar.
Of course, there were numerous celebrities also who came to cheer on the students. Among them were yesteryear star Zeenat Aman, designers Lascelles Symons, Vikram Phadnis and Manish Malhotra, model-turned-actress Aditi Govitrikar and her sister Arzoo.
Zeenat Aman was not too comfortable giving sound-bytes or being overtly photographed. She said, “I’m here for the students and I don’t want their work to be over-shadowed!”
Peeve: The celebrity section had a buffet dinner for the celebs and select media. And even though a well-known personality (a Page 3 regular) was in the room with actress Shama Sikandar and her friends, the man in question was refused a plate at the buffet counter for not having a coupon! The person refusing this celeb (who doesn’t want to be named) said his name was Shyam and that he was from Wigan & Leigh College. After I argued with this man on behalf of the celebrity, he reluctantly gave the said celebrity a “coupon”.
The celeb wanted to let it pass, saying, “The man is just doing his job!” But if you are in the VIP section, and if you are a known face, and if you are accompanying a lady who walked the ramp, the least the organizers could do was get their act together and not behave so high-and mighty!
Sheesh! Some people really know how to abuse their short-lived power. We hope the folks at Wigan & Leigh will pull up the man “in-charge of the coupons!”