Nagpur: The Vidarbha Industries Association’s (VIA) Lady Entrepreneurs’ Wing (LEW) organized The New Normal Khadi Fashion Show 2020 to promote Khadi among budding entrepreneurs and fashion designers working in the field of khadi. Taking all the Covid precautions, the show was conducted with limited invitees and 12 participants consisting of designer’s round and model round at VIA Auditorium on Saturday.
VIA LEW chairperson Manisha Bawankar gave the opening remarks. Chief guest of the show was CP Kapse, divisional director, KVIC of Nagpur. The jury panel included fashion designer Nidhi Gandhi, model and actor Prajwal Bhoyar and sponsors Anamika Rokde, Aditya Jain, Swati Gadewar and Poonam Lala. In her opening remarks, Manisha appealed to everyone not to look at khadi as a cloth but as a movement.
Kapse said, “Khadi is just not a cloth but it involves the emotions, passion, love and affection of every person who weaves it by hand unlike the synthetic clothes manufactured by machines. The scope of employment is also huge in khadi industry.”
He said that KVIC is giving permission to use khadi brand on a licence fee of Rs10,000 per year for opening khadi boutiques. For the designers and merchandizers KVIC will facilitate the business through 22,000 outlets across India. He suggested the gathering to come up with innovative ideas to make khadi popular. He announced a contribution of Rs25,000 for the development of khadi and its promotion.
Project director Madhubala Singh conceptualized the fashion show and emphasized the importance of khadi by coining the term ‘Khadi for nation, khadi for fashion’ reflecting its relevance.
VIA president Suresh Rathi spoke about the history of khadi and gave new ideas to promote it. Through a video, actress Pooja Banerjee conveyed her best wishes to all the team members of LEW for motivating lady entrepreneurs of the region as well as promoting khadi.
In all 12 contestants participated in two categories. These contestants were selected out of many applicants who sent their audition (video) clips.
Of them, Nurul Patel, Mallika Manavendra, came first and second respectively in best video clips category. In the designer category Durgesh Dixit (model Anushree Maitra) emerged as winner and Dr Rupinder Chatwal (model Gauhar Lakhani) finished runner-up. In the model category Shivani Gorle was declared winner while Shayaree Meghe came second.
The other participants were Gatha Shivhare, Reena Gulati, Kavita Bansod, in designer’s category, Vidhi Sharma, Muskaan Mansharmani and Natasha Barapatre in model category. Prizes for the fashion show were sponsored by Rokde Jewellers, Tantu, It’s New Always Designer and Creator and Rutrop.
Also present on the occasion were VIA vice-president Suhas Budhe and VIA executive committee members, VIA LEW executive committee members Sarla Kamdar, Prafullata Rode, Sarita Pawar, past presidents Saeeda Hakqe, Chitra Parate, Y Ramani, Anjali Gupta, Anita Rao, Vandana Sharma, Shachi Malik, IPP Reeta Lanjewar, vice-presidents Indu Kshirsagar, PRO Yogita Deshmukh, EC member Poonam Gupta. VIA LEW secretary Poonam Lala proposed a vote of thanks.
Project directors of the fashion show Madhubala Singh, Neelam Bowade and Shikha Khare took a lot of efforts to make it a success.