Hot, Haute Dilli

Steal Plant: Lack of glamour was duly compensated for by a spate of fashion espionage controversies. As has become the norm for LIFW. On April 24, someone sneaked some pamphlets into the media centre alleging that Manish Arora's presentation on the previous day was a complete rip-off from British designers Alexander McQueen and John Galliano. Rumour mills worked overtime in guessing who did it.

The next day started off with a joint press conference hosted by Sabyasachi and Kiran Uttam Ghosh, to clear a misunderstanding that Sabyasachi had accused Ghosh of copying his designs, as reported in a city daily. He clarified that the newspaper had misquoted him. By evening, Suneet Varma held another press conference where he charged fellow designer Aki Narula of copying a creation from his fall-winter 2004 collection and draping it on Rani Mukherjee in the forthcoming film Bunti Aur Babli. Narula is the costume designer for the film.

If this was not enough, designer Nikki Mahajan filed a complaint with the FDCI against Anuradha Vakil. Mahajan accused Vakil of stealing the limelight at the post-show conference as she got her friend and client Shabana Azmi with her, who, incidentally, walked the ramp for her.

Controversies often shift the focus from the actual issues, although momentarily. The fashion business, meanwhile, is already planning for next year. "We will try and advance the week to make sure that buyers have enough budgets left when they arrive in India," says FDCI chairman Rathi Vinay Jha who wants to organise two fashion weeks from 2006—spring/summer and fall/winter. "For maximum commercial benefits, the first one should be organised just after the Paris fashion week," opines designer David Abraham. So, from 2006, expect double the ego, paranoia and controversies.