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The party begins

The Blenders Pride Fashion Tour takes off. A look at what's coming up

PHOTO: S. SUBRAMANIUM

INTERESTING LINE-UP The Tour brings together the best in the business

Seven cities, 14 designers, 21 shows - the fashion carnival has begun. With the Blenders Pride Fashion Tour 2006 kick off in Kolkata, it seems the dry spell is over! Recently, the participating designers previewed an outfit each from their collections in New Delhi. This time the participants include Manish Malhotra, Tarun Tahiliani, Ashish Soni, Aparna Chandra, Sabyasachi Mukherjee, Suneet Varma, Ranna Gill and Rajesh Pratap Singh.

Says Bikram Basu, Assistant Vice President, Seagram's India, a major liquor brand, "We started from four cities, with four designers, four years back. We are now going to cities like Pune and Chandigarh as well because they are doing well economically and are new hubs from where both the designers and our brand could benefit."

Over the years, the tour comes across as a brand-positioning event, which lacks focus. Designers could show couture, prêt, trousseau and even a mix of all. "It's not a trade event. We don't invite buyers, but designers are free to call if they want to," says Basu.

Agrees Aparna Chandra, who is returning to the fashion scene after giving India Fashion Week a miss, "The greatest thing about the tour is that you are allowed to show what you want."

Focussing turnover

Says Ranna Gill, who would be showcasing her collection in Delhi and Chandigarh, "It is a big party after India Fashion Week, where the focus is on turnovers. Here, you don't have to take care of the logistics, as the company mounts it. And you get good media coverage. I would be showing fall-winter interpretation of my ikat-based collection shown at the recently concluded spring- summer edition of the IFW. I have used tussar and Bhagalpuri silk and have fabricated it to suit the coming winter season. Similarly, I have also coloured the outfits in black and white."

Designer Suneet Varma, however, sees the opportunity differently. "Good press should be backed by product, otherwise it's a waste. I am going to Pune for the first time, so I sent my business representative to the city to look out what the city's fashion demands are, and accordingly we will customise the collection. We would also invite the city's store owners, to look out for possibilities of a tie-up."

So no new collection for the tour? Hardly any. Most have already shown their fall-winter collection at IFW and LFW earlier this year.

Still, for some designers like Tarun Tahiliani it is an opportunity to show occasion wear or couture and for others like Varma, it is an opening to take his Amrita Sher-Gil-inspired collection (which he showed in Delhi recently) to Mumbai. Also other centres, where there are no Weeks will get to see the collections, up close. The tour will have a three-day stopover in the Capital from November 10.

ANUJ KUMAR

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