Ahmedabad is getting glamorous and how?
Just about few days back, the city witnessed show by Queenie Singh and Rhea Pillai. And today, Mana Shetty, Maheep Kapoor and Vikram Phadnis were in town for a glamorous exhibition that served the purpose of ‘Fashion with a cause’.
Araaish, one day exhibit, turned out to be a huge success at Hyatt, Ahmedabad. A fund raising arm of ‘Save the Children India’, an NGO started by Mrs Vipula Kadri back in 1988, is run by Mana Shetty. Suneil Shetty is the ambassador for the NGO. After having done 50 shows till now, they made their debut in Ahmedabad market today.
Celebrity jewellery designer Maheep Kapoor, Mana Shetty and ace fashion designer Vikram Phadnis were present at the exhibit today along with Araaish organizers Samia Alam Khan, Manzoor Alam Khan and Sharmilla Khanna. All for ‘Save the Children India’ charity.There were about 50 brands displaying at the exhibit including apparels, jewellery and home decor.
We (Team Ciceroni) got a chance to interview these celebrities and know more about their collection.
So the brands that I loved today are –
1) Vikram Phadnis
He started his journey as a choreographer but moved on to being a Fashion designer. Vikram Phadnis has been dressing up celebrities of the ilk of Salman Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Kareena Kapoor, John Abraham, Katrina Kaif, Priyanka Chopra, Vidya Balan and many more since last 25 years.
‘It wasn’t planned. It all fell in place organically. I wanted to create fashion for masses. I did not want fashion to be inaccessible. My label is very modestly priced. My collection at Araaish today starts from 12000 onwards and goes on maximum of till 30000‘ says Vikram Phadnis in an exclusive interaction at the exhibit.
He had a display of sharara sets, ready to wear saree, saree & blouse sets in his festive collection.Indeed his collection was worth a dekko and buy.
2) ‘Save the children India’
Mana Shetty’s NGO ‘ Save the Children India’ had organized this fundraising event Araaish. A part of their NGO supports and empowers destitutes by teaching them sewing and making them self sufficient for their livelihood.
Mana Shetty had designed the special collection of Tie & Dye tunics and Skirt & kurta sets. Besides these, there were table runners, gift bags and tissue holders that were lovingly made by the girls from ‘Save the Children India’.
Price -Tunics – 4000
Skirt sets – 6500
Gift bags – 350
3) Rose tree
A label by the mother daughter duo – Rani Kamini Singh and Princess Chandni Singh from Seohara , Rosetree is all about organic fabrics and natural colours. Aditi Jain, curator from Ahmedabad, presented Rose tree at Araaish today. The label was displaying beautiful and elegant sharara sets in rose colour, ivory, electric blue, grey and sombre yellow.The designs reminded one of the royal era indeed..
Price – Sharara sets – 16000 – 20000
Kurta – 10000
4) By Aditi Amin
By Aditi Amin is a four year old high end jewellery brand started by an investment banker Aditi Amin. Her label is ‘style statement’ centric and had avante garde vibes. She makes bracelets, chandbalis, chokers and neck pieces with eccentric sensibilities.
By Aditi Amin has a pret collection priced moderately from 1000 to 3000 whereas her signature couture collection starts from 2000 to 10000. She displayed a dreamy pret range of pearls & semi precious gems jewellery line at Araaish besides her signature bracelets and neckpieces.
5) Seams Pret and Couture
Sajeda Lehry, a SNDT graduate from Mumbai has been designing since last 12 years, but she started her label ‘Seams Pret & Couture’ only in 2012 along with partner Yunus Rajkotwala. Primarily a resort wear range, her collection was a surreal poetry studded with pearls in pastel shades. Vintage was the theme of her collection displayed at Araaish. One could spot laces, pearls, floral and pastels in her line.
Price – Tunics & Dresses – 6500 -17000
Lehenga- 25000 – 75000
6) Nay- ked
Garima Chawla, the designer of Nay-Ked, believes in creating modern contemporary silhouettes in pure fabrics like Georgette, crepe, satin silks. Her label is effortlessly chic, current and always for fun garments. It is a young label that caters to resort wear & evening cocktail parties. She had an interesting collection of dresses in grecian drapes. To top it up, it was affordable luxury for the urban woman.
Price – 5000 – 8000
7) Azuli
Nikki Merani, the designer of Azuli, has been designing since 8 years now. Her label Azuli is inspired from princess Azuli of 18th century. Her design thus involves elegant drapes that personify feminity. Her collection had an essence of nets, laces and pastel shades. She brought in interesting off shouldered festive capes that can be teamed with pants or skirts. She also had sulwar sets, anarkali dresses besides long dresses.
Price – 8000 – 35000
8) Sk’n
Sakshi Kandya Nowlakha was the most refreshing label at the exhibit today. Based out of Bangalore, Sk’n focuses on bringing collection that breaks the norms of dressing. Each piece is separate- tunic, pants, cape. The colour palette is perennially neutral because she feels colours & trends will come and go, what will remain classic is neutrals.
They work only on handloom fabrics. It’s just a 13 month old brand and we say watch out for it fashionistas.
Price – 3500 – 20000
9) Maheep Kapoor for Satyani Fine Jewels
At the exhibit today, Maheep Kapoor was displaying her trademark chand bali range along with others like neckpieces and finger rings as a part of her designs for Satyani Fine Jewels. Being a luxury jewellery brand in diamond and gold jewellery, her travellers range came as a pleasant surprise for the working class. Priced modestly from 15000 to 100000, Maheep Kapoor creates fine jewellery in yellow, white and rose gold set with pearls, precious stones, semi-precious gems and gem materials.
10) Studio Bhavik Shah
Started by Bhavik Shah, a Fine Arts graduate from MSU Baroda and NIFT Gandhinagar, Studio Bhavik Shah is known for its mix and match sensibilities. For his current collection, he created motifs from Persian architecture and Moghul buildings and translated them in contemporary ethnic wear. The routine Marodi and gota Patti work is done in innovative style to make it attractive for the youth.He displayed jackets , sulwar suits, anarkali and sharara sets at Araaish today.
Fabric – Mulberry silk, raw silk, cotton, Chiffon
Price – Regular range 3000 – 8000
Festive range – 14000 – 18000
11) Maayera Jaipur
A 2.5 years old label catering to footwear and apparels, Maayera Jaipur is all about hand block prints and organic fabrics. Ajrakh cotton kurta, tunic and dresses were available in organic cottons, mainly in shades of whites and pastels. They also had fabric jootis available.
Price – Jootis – 2000 to 4000
Dresses – 3500 to 7500
It was a must visit exhibit for the ones who look for new labels in luxury segment. Some brands were really worth the money. All I am excited about is that Ahmedabad is witnessing a glamour wave, I hope it stays and changes the way people dress!
( PS – Excuse the quality of images. Since the review is done on spot, we make do with mobile camera always)
Until Next Blog…
Appleblossom 