Kareena Kapoor Khan played showstopper for Anamika Khanna’s LFW grand finale Janak Rathod
ON SUNDAY night at Bandra Fort, Kareena Kapoor Khan walked the makeshift runway for Kolkata designer Anamika Khanna’s Lakme Fashion Week (LFW) Summer/Resort 2018 grand finale. Almost instantaneously, she made headlines on social media. “Kareena Kapoor Khan stuns in black at Lakme Fashion Week’s grand finale” proclaimed one website. Another deemed her showstopper turn as “breathing life” into Khanna’s collection. Even as Instagram debated whether she looked ‘Hot or Not’, there was barely any mention of Khanna’s use of inventive silhouettes, bright colours, youthful prints or embroidery.
Though Kapoor-Khan is Lakme’s brand ambassador and not necessarily Khanna’s pick for her model pool, Sunday evening proved what we’ve debated and mused over for the better part of a decade. In India, fashion and Bollywood make strange bedfellows — mutually beneficial and reciprocal in reverence, yet conversely detrimental to any serious conversation centred on creativity and commerce. After two days of summery and sustainable collections, LFW’s fashion freight train careened off course and jumped on to the celebrity showstopper bandwagon. Chic separates gave way to sparkly lehengas and the Summer/Resort 2015 agenda was hijacked by the glitz and glamour brigade.
Over the weekend it was as if Bollywood shut shop to come to Jio Gardens and take over the LFW runway. Every pretty actor worth her stylist and media manager was on showstopper duty. From Kalki Koechlin, Aditi Rao Hydari, Swara Bhaskar, Tamannah Bhatia, Kiara Advani and Kriti Sanon to Saiyami Kher, Yami Gautam, Pooja Hegde and Niddhi Agerwal — the list only got longer. The more recognisable names on the bill came in the form of Kangana Ranaut, Shilpa Shetty, Bipasha Basu, Sushmita Sen, Dia Mirza, Sania Mirza, Saif Ali Khan, Sonakshi Sinha, even self-styled fashion maven Karan Johar. The entire week saw around 36 stars don the war paint and wax eloquent about the designers they were walking for.
Celebrity showstoppers and flashbulb popping photo-ops are all fine, but what does it say for the industry when the conversation centres around the divas and not around clothes? Designer Ridhi Mehra-Sekhri is only too happy to have someone like newbie Hegde close her show. Mehra-Sekhri, whose five-year-old label has gained prominence as a red carpet favourite with celebrities like Shraddha Kapoor, Malaika Arora, Parineeti Chopra and Diana Penty, says, “Indians love their celebrities. And if they add a glamourous element to your collection, lend an aspirational quality to your clothes and help you get noticed in the media, it’s a good resource to tap,” says the young designer.
Karan Johar and Sonakshi Sinha walk the ramp for Falguni & Shane Peacock Janak Rathod
While newcomers might understandably need the added boost, an established designer, on condition of anonymity, says that when a designer gets a solo slot there is an inadvertent expectation from the organisers, media, and audience that a personality will walk the ramp. “A celebrity guarantees coverage with certain sections of the media and will instantly get your show noticed. So what if the focus is only on the celebrity rather than the clothes she/he is wearing?” she says.
For a commercially successful label like Shyamal & Bhumika too, a showstopper like Ranaut definitely means more eyeballs for their Indian and Middle Eastern markets. “That said, nearly 60 percent of our clientele are second-generation NRIs and they don’t necessarily care about Bollywood showstoppers. But for us, it’s important who we associate with. It’s important that the work of thousands of artisans is appreciated than just a one-time mention,” says Shyamal Shodhan.
While in Indian fashion’s infancy, designers and muses — Abu-Sandeep and Anna Bredmeyer, Tarun Tahiliani and Mehr Jesia, Malaika Arora and Wendell Rodricks — built long-term associations and mutually rewarding relationships, today this partnership has sadly been reduced to counting the number of clicks on a photo-sharing website. “We don’t mandate that designers bring celebrities to walk the ramp, it’s entirely their prerogative. Sometimes, it’s part of their agreement with sponsors. But, we are an in-season event, and brands are increasingly looking for instant amplification on social media, rather than treating this just as a B2B event,” says Jaspreet Chandok, Head, Fashion, IMG Reliance.
(Left) Kangna Ranaut closed the show for Shyamal & Bhumika Janak Rathod; (Right) Kalki Koechlin waits backstage before walking the ramp for Jade Amit Chakravarty
Whether Karan Johar actually wears pieces from Falguni and Shane Peacock’s menswear line Louche off the runway or not, his silver-flecked hair-do and persistent pout has social media chatterati still chittering. Hopefully, the success of the new line won’t be as temporary as the fastness of Johar’s hair dye.
For all the latest Lifestyle News, download Indian Express App
