Delhi-based designer Suneet Varma brought the curtains down with a stunning grand finale at the Lakme Fashion Week Summer/Resort 2010 on March 9, 2010.

Of course, it’s a kick-arse deal to do the grand finale. But unlike what most people think, a ‘grand finale’ isn’t completely about the Autumn/Winter or Spring?Summer designs which are showcased at the fashion week. It’s a brand initiative where a specific look is unveiled. And so, at the Lakme Fashion Week grand finale in Mumbai, designer Suneet Varma revealed 4 pretty looks that women can sport and they can attain that by opting for a range of cosmetics available at the Lakme counters (Got it, why it’s called ‘Lakme’ Grand Finale). Now moving to the super buzzing grand finale show put up for a select audience of fashionistas by designer Suneet Varma. It was as if Tuesday evening had turned into a Saturday night discotheque on March 9 at the Lakme Fashion Week Summer/Resort 2010 at Grand Hyatt, Mumbai. Suneet weaved his magic on the ramp unveiling a perfectly accentuated Night Fever collection and got everyone swaying to the beats of Bee Gees Night Fever lyrics which went Gimme That Night Fever…We Know How To Show It.

The grand finale which started one hour later that scheduled time of 9.30pm was so worth the wait as it opened up a Spanish mansion to the packed house. Globe-shaped giant silver disco balls hung from the ceiling and scattered light on the walls as peppy tracks resounded in pumped up volumes by music band Midival Punditz featuring Shai’r and Func from a silver balcony at one end.

Sparing none, the show started with such a loud thump that everyone started to hum along while putting their hands together for the gorgeous models who walked in showcasing the looks including moonlit salsa, starlight casino, club hop and Sufi rock, which truly  reflected the modern woman’s electric sensuality.

Then came the three dancing Lakme faces including models Indrani Dasgupta, Amrit Maghera and Lisa Hayden shimmering down the ramp striking Suneet Varma’s perception of the confident, modern Indian woman. The makeup was beautifully done by Cory Walia and Clint Fernandes and models sashayed the return of the sequined leggings and psychedelic mini dresses.

While people wished the show would go on…spiky-haired grand finale designer Suneet Varma walked towards the head ramp with a skip and jump moving in sync with the drum beats onto the ramp. Pointing his hands and gyrating like Elvis Presley, Suneet got the house on their feet, literally sweeping Mumbaiites hearts away. In the F-Row, BT spotted Sameer Nerulkar of Samira Habitats, co-sponsor of LFW and Mehul Choksi of Gitanjali group who put their hands together as Suneet took a bow with a thankful look in his eyes. ‘What an amazing finish to the fives days of a successful fashion week. We loved it’, said the guests.

Lakmé Fashion Week Summer/Resort 2010

Arjun Rampal

My second day at Lakme Fashion Week was even more colorful and celebrity-studded than the first and I think on that front I’ll just let the videos do the talking! Clearly everyone thought it was just priceless that MissMalini is taking video bytes about Malini Ramani’s show but curiously enough the two people I least expected to give me the once-over, Koel Puri and Carol Gracias both seemed fairly wary once I introduced myself and reacted with a slightly icey, “oh yoouuu’rrrreee MissMalini, you’re a naughty girl.” Really? Me, naughty? Never.

Chunky Pandey

MissMalini’s gadget land!

Julius Macwan (yup that’s the dude in the skirt)

Lakmé Fashion Week Summer/Resort 2010

Lakmé Fashion Week Summer/Resort 2010

Marc Robinson

Malini Ramani’s show was really quite the production and I loved it! She actually managed to seamlessly weave together her clothes with Grey Goose Martinis in a Mills & Boons type romance about a girl called Rita. Rita clearly lives the good life and from what I gathered spends most of her time jetting around the world in fashionable attire drinking expensive cocktails looking for Mr. Right. Charming. Amid her models was the legendary Meher Jessia who’s doting husband Arjun Rampal and daughter were also there in full support. Koel Puri raved about Malini (as you can see in the video) and was actually already wearing something from the new collection off the ramp, how very posh (I’m trying not to be naughty I swear!) Rahul Bose made an appearance as well and I’m wondering who the leggy lass next to him was? She has a very Aishwarya Rai look to her so I first thought it was Sneha Ulal but apparently not.

Lakmé Fashion Week Summer/Resort 2010

Narendra Kumar Ahmed

Narendra Kumar Ahmed really blew it out of the park with a psychedelic – futuristic show. The models bathed in laser lights did very terminator-type catwalks and stopped frequently to stare up at the sky. (This may come in really handy someday if we do get visitors from outer-space, no harm putting our prettiest face forward I say.) Nari seemed to really be enjoying himself and the wig he took a shine to, considering he wore it to the fancy after party with an equally big smile on his face!

Acquin Pais

Junelia Aguiar and Ash Chandler

Sabina Chopra in Sabyasachi

Kalki Koechlin

Sabina Chopra was wearing another gorgeous Sabyashachi and trendy red shades when she revealed her own plans to take off on a much-needed holiday. She laughed that Sabyaaschi insisted that she do it all first class! Oh and I also spotted Kalki Koechlin before Nari’s show, she really carries herself with SO much old-world elegance. After Dev D., that Coke commercial with Imran Khan and this picture I’m officially a fan!

Sammeer & Palak Sheth

Arijit Datta

The Grey Goose Lounge saw its fair share of party animals on a liquid diet thanks to the killer bar crew (I tried a yummy new sparkling-wine there too courtesy Arijit Datta!) Ronit Roy in particular was SO drunk he literally could not stand straight and walked right into the bar before being escorted out, I guess its convenient that apart from being an actor he also runs a security company, since most of the people who would have wanted to beat him up that night probably use his guards he’s safe! Clever (and lucky.) At one point Arjun Rampal stepped in and was heckled by some drunk dude (no not Ronit) and quickly left, but I still got a good look

My bad for not recognizing Diandra Soares after she’s shaved her head twice for Fashion Week. Girls got guts. She was also extremely peeved that they weren’t letting her into the after-party without a pass and then joked that, “well then I said I just won’t come to work tomorrow and they were more than willing to let her through!”

Designer Nikhil and MissMalini

Designers Shantanu & Nikhil, Nikasha & MissMalini

Plus I got to attend the post party in the plaza which was pretty posh, the highlight for me of course was running into Shantanu & Nikhil who’s dresses I just LOVE (and happened to be wearing!) It was pretty funny actually I walked by and Nikhil was like “nice dress” and for a second I thought what if that’s the designer?! And guess what? It totally was! I’m told their new collection is even more killer and they’ve decided to play with two colors only – black & yellow. (Some day do more Grey & Magenta pretty please?)

For video links on Malini’s LFW blog click:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISj9005Doj0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QEo4m5EaF0

For more blogs by MissMalini visit http://www.missmalini.com/

Lakmé Fashion Week Summer/Resort 2010

Did I tell you how psyched I was that MissMalini was officially invited to blog about Lakme Fashion Week? Holla I have arrived! Ok so I could pretend to know all about fashion but really I’d feel like a bit of a con job. So how about I take you through my first day at Fashion Week my way? That means you get the uncut, random thought, trigger-happy version just the way I saw it! Deal?

Ok so let me tell you straight up that I don’t go to Fashion Week to look at the clothes. I go to Fashion Week to look at the people look at the clothes the highlight of my evening is finding a vantage point from which to snap the celebrities (like that one time with Bipasha Basu) this time I was mortally disappointed that Manish Malhotra had no show-stopper. I mean don’t get me wrong the show was super fun and happy and the music was hopping but considering I was actually IN my seat this time (unlike last year) what a bummer! His front bench consisted of Urmila Matondkar, Raveena Tandon, Dino Morea and Celina Jaitley, not too shabby!

The cool thing about being “press” is that you have a pre-assigned seat and can troop in all business-like instead of doing the excuse-me-pardon-me squeeze through the aisles. For some reason though the good peeps over at Lakme think my name is Malini Sharma. Er.. not so much. My friends thought that was hilarious and the perhaps there was a “Mr. Sharma” tucked away that I had somehow failed to mention! Anyhoo, here’s the lo down (as I remember it) from Fashion Week.

I love that Verve was “penciled in” amid all the printed place-holders. I sat next to the High Heel Confidential girls who are awesome and I really did try to get a picture of them for you but they’re super shy and prefer to remain incognito. Suffice to say they are lovely and you would BFF them in a heartbeat.

So as you can see I got lots of footage of the shows (Anupama, Nachiket Barve and Manish Malhotra respectively) to give you a feel of the vibe (and the press note with fancy words and official pictures are surely on their way.) But I’ll tell you one thing, atmosphere-wise music is crucial and Manish Malhotra had by far the most pumping sound. Also all his models had ace energy and clearly were having a blast on stage!

I also spotted this actress in pink (with what appears to be her new squeeze) getting all cuddly with her boyfriend. For some reason am totally blanking on her name, help! *Thank you Chetna for jogging my memory!

Oh and Carol Gracias is back and how! Its amazing the applause she get every time she hits the ramp. I can’t help but wonder if its everyone’s way of making nice about the wardobe debacle that killed her mojo for a bit. Also full respect to the model with the shiny head. I’m serious, it takes balls to walk down the ramp on a bad-hair-day forget no hair day! *OMG you’re right yashaswini it’s Diandra Soares, and she is stunning (with hair and without!)

So there are basically three places to hang out in at your average Fashion Week:
1) The actual show venue where you do a lot of people watching for about 20 minutes while the ushers rocket around “sensitively” seating everyone (so not an easy job by the way!), ironically the actual show lasts about 15 minutes at most.
2) The lobby, where you schmooze and loiter (hoping to spot a celebrity) on your way to one of the lounges (either Kingfisher, Gitanjalee or Grey Goose) where the drinks are free and the music is bopping.
3) The stairs on the far end outside where all the smokers unite.
Plus after each show there is about 10 minutes of absolute chaos when a wall of paparazzi forms in the lobby between the lounges and the smoking section and celebrities come out and do their thing in a frenzy of flashes and “Raveena, Raveena look this side!”

Then of course there are your Fashion Week regulars, its work for some, play for others. I always like running into them though because they’re super talented and still so friendly. Big love to Sabina Chopra aka Mrs. Lakme (for always sorting me out with passes and having a wicked sense of humor!), Sujal Shah (Head of Fashion at IMG) who I recently discovered has quite the radio voice! Bandana Tewari for her classic elegance and the fact that she lets me take her picture Vikram Raizada who always makes me feel so good about myself and Narendra Kumar Ahmed aka Nari who’s a bigger party animal than I am!

Also ran into my Twitter buddy @psingh400 wearing this stunning dress by the label “Mermaid” in Goa, hmmm must investigate!

Of course we ended up at the Grey Goose lounge and then China House and where I ran into Sonny & Preeti Caberwal who incidentally I met same place, same time last year! They are really awesome (like the mausam, I’ll explain that in a second*) and are responsible for that pretty wicked contest on Exclusively.in I told you about. They even brought along one of Madonna’s dancers! Sunjay Guleria who works with them (and is super-fun to party with and quite the poser as you can see!) introduced me to the winning girls (I’ll get a video of them today!) and said very nice things about my legs. Lol, God I love my life
*For some reason we kept saying that all night. And this song is now stuck in my head.

P.S. Hilarious that these two guys seem fairly oblivious to their fashion blunder at Fashion Week. Ah the irony can’t you you just taste it?!

For more blogs by MissMalini visit http://www.missmalini.com/

Its possible that some designers too get so caught up in the uncommon beauty of the models theyre outfitting, that they forget that the real world looks very, very different. Out on ground zero, drop-crotch pants and exaggerated hips will make women roll their eyes and sigh audibly. They dont want to pay money to accentuate those thunder thighs theyve been trying to get rid off. It may have seemed perfectly edgy on the sketchpad, but chances of it being gobbled up by buyers are slim. Designers need buyers who in turn, need a guarantee of big bucks. A major Indian buyer once told me that inconsistency is why many young designers tend to crash and burn. Theyre so caught up in their own creative bubble that they forget about the basics of business- keeping deadlines, quality management and most of all, practicality.

 It may be the secret to the sustained reign of such fashion icons as Lagerfeld, Armani and closer home, Valayya. They understand what the market wants and have learnt to balance creativity with practicality. And it may be the reason why genius minds like Haider Ackermann and Hussain Chalayan remain so sadly niche.

Like I said, I’ve learnt my lesson. No more loitering in the lounge while the star does his makeup! That’s how I ended up watching Manish Malhotra’s show from the bar instead of the front row last time! (Although I more than made up for it at the post-party where it was glitterati central.) Woohoo Fashion Week-end here I come…

For more blogs by MissMalini visit http://www.missmalini.com/