25 years of India's fashion week

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Next week, Lakmé Fashion Week, in collaboration with the Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI) and Reliance, will mark its 25th anniversary with a five-day showcase, starting 26 March, at Mumbai’s Jio World Convention Centre. Among the highlights will be AK-OK’s opening show, Satya Paul’s first collection under the new creative direction of Abraham & Thakore, and presentations by artisans-turned-designers from Gujarat.

Perhaps the most awaited of all would be the grand finale on 30 March, featuring several homegrown designers—names have not been made public yet—in a rare show of unity. When FDCI was established as an industry body of designers in the 1990s, one of its mandates was to provide a platform for Indian design talent as well as help them with large-scale commerce. (Till then, designers hosted their own shows, with or without sponsorship.) Thus, the first fashion week, with beauty house Lakmé as the title sponsor and organiser IMG, took place in August 2000 in Delhi at the Taj Palace Hotel.

Models like Nina Manuel and Waluscha De Sousa walked the narrow runways, presenting ready-to-wear creations by 30-odd designers, including the late Rohit Bal’s embroidered silhouettes and Ritu Kumar’s lehnga-cholis. It was a time of “pure magic", recalls Nonita Kalra, who was then the editor of Elle magazine. “The first five years were madness of creativity.

Rohit Bal, Tarun Tahiliani, Ritu Kumar, Anamika Khanna... all showcasing on one stage, speaking different languages; it was a fresh experience for them as well as us, the viewers." New York’s Fern Mallis, former executive director of Council of Fashion Designers of America, a trade association, too, was “blown away by the talent". As