City Specific

For those of you who have caught stylish action (fashion) week after (fashion) week,will know that Mandira Wirk is a busy bee. The relatively new to the industry designer has been churning out collections that have left lasting impressions. But it’s her surname that gets us inquisitive and we learn she’s a Wirk from Jalandhar. “Punjab is home to me,” says the Punjabi kudi who packed her bags early on to study at the London School of Fashion. “I was always designing my own clothes and that kind of progressed into a full-fledged career,” she says.

Bringing Wirk and her most recent collection to Chandigarh is the Blenders Pride Magical Nights Tour that’s touching 11 cities and hosting fashionable nights featuring designers and Bollywood celebs like Minisha Lamba and Dia Mirza. “It’s an interesting way to showcase one’s work in cities apart from Mumbai and Delhi. Today I find that the non-metros are steadily scaling up the style charts,” remarked the designer who brings with her a resort wear-meets-Grecian collection that is high on drapes and feminity. “As far as colours go,I have used the likes of ivory to mushroom,lilac to fuchsia. The look is feminine and the fabric is predominantly silk jersey,” briefs the designer who was accompanied by Bollywood’s A-list designer Vikram Phadnis and actor Minissha Lamba for the Chandigarh tour. “While I belong to Jalandhar,my husband’s family is Chandigarh-based and it’s fo the first time that I would be bringing my work here,” mentioned the soft-spoken designer. While she’s yet to retail from Punjab,Mandira has her Punjabi clientele coming all the way to Delhi to shop. “As far as style goes,everyone’s in league. It would be unfair to say that smaller cities are late on trends or aren’t in tune with the latest,” we heard Wirk say. On the work front,she’s already got her collection for the summer of 2010 in place which will be showcased at the forthcoming Lakme Fashion Week. “While the runway shows keep me busy,I am looking at designing for Bollywood as well,” mentioned Wirk who has designed for reality TV shows including ‘Knights and Angels’,a NDTV Imagine TV show for IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders a while back.