We at MissMalini love to promote and encourage new talent, more so if they are young and dynamic college students with bright ideas and dreams that soar sky-high! So, when my dear friends, Preeti Doshi and Navneet Patil, Head of Department for Fashion Design at the L.S. Raheja Technical Institute (Worli, Mumbai) asked me to be on the jury panel to judge the collections by the graduating students, I was most excited to see the brilliant ideas the young designers of tomorrow have created after their three-year course!
So on a crisp and cool winter morning, I joined artist Payal Khandwala, international fashion consultant Rita Dhody, stylist Kushal Parmanand, Kosha Vora of Melange and designer Shahid Dattawalla to sit down and view almost twenty collections by a group of visibly-nervous goung girls.
Their theme for the collections was Synergy and quite frankly it was really hard for us to pin-point a single collection that would go on to win the coveted prize – Collection Of The Year.
With inspirations that ranged from ancient Egypt to a Queen bee and from shadows to mirror-reflections, the girls outdid themselves with their fantastical silhouettes, surface texturing and specially designed bags and shoes. They explored fabrics like velvet, silk, cotton, leather and even ikkat-weaves with much enthusiasm.
The final fashion show, held yesterday, was choreographed and directed by the inimitable Achla Sachdev at the Classique Club in Andheri, Mumbai. The audience clapped loudly and cheered during the Bollywood sequence (see video) where the models dressed up as Zeenat Aman, Dimple Kapadia, Gabbar Singh, Don and Basanti (from Sholay).
Achla brought glamour to the showing by using top models like Shruti Aggarwal, Kavita Kharayat, Gaurav Arora, Alesia Raut and even ex Miss India Parvathy Omanakuttan (who will soon be seen on the silver screen).
After much deliberation and scrutiny, we decided that Tarka Patil’s collection, called Gaia’s Pantoum, had a slight edge over the others and hence, voted her outfits for Collection of the Year. The insanely creative student cut her silhouettes in a circular pattern and embellished them with a lot of surface texturing, applique and embroidery techniques. Lady Gaga would have definitely gone gaga over these dresses! My pic from her line? A pair of pants with ladybug motifs. Too cute!
The clothes and accessories will be on sale on the 2oth, 21st and 22nd of January at Infinity Mall (Andheri) from 10am onwards. Go get them and support the students!