Fashion does the right thing

This week, the entire fashion fraternity of the country has its eyes on one of the biggest fashion shows of the nation. With Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week all set to storm the runways with their Autumn-Winter 2012 collections, from February 15 to 19, the buzz can surely make us giddy with excitement.

“The fact that WLIFW has 138 designers on the same platform is a record of sorts,” starts Sunil Sethi, president of Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI), the think-tank behind this extravagant fashion week. “It’s a time when designers from different parts of the country put away their differences and come to do business together — after all, the fashion week isn’t just about showing off new creations, it’s about making some serious money.”

From Abraham & Thakore and Tarun Tahiliani from New Delhi, Anand Kabra from Hyderabad, Meera Ali from Lucknow, Manish Malhotra and Rocky S from Mumbai to Monapali, Dev r Nil and Kallol Datta from Calcutta, Rehane from Chennai and Raj Shroff and Ritu Pande from Bangalore — WLIFW will feature designers from across genres, ages and cities.
“One can’t overlook the fact that many of the designers make 50% to 70% of their annual revenue from this one show; I have always believed that a fashion week’s agenda is to be able to bring that to the designers who are investing money in this show to be on the stage or even in the stalls. This is not just a branding exercise,” asserts Sethi.

But that’s not all WLIFW is about to do — this year, the event has taken up two serious causes as well. “Any fashion week across the world is known to bring awareness of some sort; this is because fashion weeks are the right platform to grab the relevant eyeballs,” says Sethi.

This year, 12 Indian designers — Manish Arora, Suneet Varma, JJ Valaya, Tarun Tahiliani, Shantanu & Nikhil, Ashima-Leena, Ritu Beri, Ashish Soni, Rohit Gandhi-Rahul Khanna, Hemant Lecoanet, Ravi Bajaj and Rajesh Pratap Singh — are having a special show titled From Ashes to Beauty, along with a photo exhibition by ace lensman Subi Samuel to support YouCanFree.Us in a campaign against human trafficking.
On the other hand, People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and FDCI are joining hands to raise their voices against animal abuse along with actors Gulshan Grover and Mahima Chaudhary. The campaign will extend to FDCI’s next fashion week in September.

“Most people think fashion designers only party after work, but that’s not true. Most of them participate in various social causes and do their bit of the world and the environment. And I am actually very proud that FDCI is able to extend whatever support it can in order to bring these causes to the forefront. The interesting thing is when you have so many like-minded people wanting to do something good, it takes just a minute to get something going and I was really pleased when so many designers came right up and said they’d like to be part of this movement,” adds Sethi.