Oh, how the weeks fly by!

So, another week that will claim to set new standards in fashion has begun. Couture is an easy target: it is easier to sell couture for profit, easier to create what with our heritage of embellishments in gold and silver thread is so much more eye-catching than prêt. Besides, one has enough references to fall back on, and need not worry about creating new silhouettes. Which is probably why Couture Week has come to stay.

Delhi seemed to have moved to Mumbai en masse: from the guests, to the manners, to the organisation and management of the event (please read between the lines).The crystals that hung from the tent ceilings, the origami lotuses, and the high decibel level of the music set the scene, trying to help those waiting in a crowded foyer that at 8.30, the 7.30 pm show was yet to begin.

Pallavi Jaikishen made a very emphatic statement — that Indian women look best in sweeping, shimmering garments. I hope the rather over ripe women in the audience dressed in short cocktail dresses and girly ensembles better suited to an ingénue got the message.

Pallavi’s show was timely. Keeping the recession in mind and the fact that the rains have played truant and power supply could be erratic in the coming year, she ensured there was no danger of a wedding having to be conducted in darkness. The bride came equipped with her own lighting, with bulbs skirting her gauzy trailing veil.

As for the clothes, what we could see of them, when the spotlights were not shining straight into our eyes (please change this if you don’t want blind journalists) they seemed pretty. The colours were pleasant — pinks, peach and gold — both matte and shiny, and a few soft orange tints thrown in. Five themes were unravelled, but frankly, one has to check them up close to know for sure which was which.

There were pretty baskets of flowers making up an embroidery theme on some of the garments, and some heavy gold textured ghagras. All  wearable and the kind that will add real weight to personality.And the real statement was made by the antique jewellery very well displayed on necks, arms, and very covetable!

Being Human…. There were many mixed messages in this show on what being human was all about. But the message was clear.If one fashion week could get diverse designers on to the same platform, the other could gather even competing stars on to one stage. So it was that Salman Khan, he of the blackbuck killing fame, walked to cheering and wolf whistles to start the show.

Eight designers as diverse  as the stars, from Shane and Falguni Peacock, (who seem to have disappeared into the woods for sometime now) to Ashish Soni (elegant in his work as always) sent out clothes that ranged from jeans and Tees to  hand-painted ensembles, and rainbow coloured evening gowns in soft satin silk.

Salman ensured family and friend Katrina Kaif got top billing, but everyone from Saif to Govinda, Aamir Khan to Akshay Kumar and Ajay Devgn to Sanjay Dutt got their share of catcalls and wolf whistles, especially from the star quotient crowded at one end of the front row.

Luckily, no Cinderellas were in danger of turning into pumpkins, the show ended before midnight. No chance of filing the story, post the show — the computers in the tiny, messy, lit-by-hallogen-media centre were obviously for show only. None worked!