Classic Opulence

Perfectly orchestrated and designed to create an opulent milieu,the dinner held last week at the Taj Mahal Hotel,Mumbai,to celebrate the opening of the first Christian Dior boutique in the city was a memorable one. Giant chandeliers with Dior charms hung down from the Taj staircase — lighting the grey carpeting made specially to match the house colour. The archival couture dresses — specially flown in from Paris for the dinner— greeted the guests in the ballroom. Celebrity guests and Bollywood A-listers glided in,raising the tempo of the evening hosted by Kalyani Chawla,vice-president (marketing and communications),Christian Dior,India. Also present at the occasion were dignitaries such as Serge Brunschwig,COO,Christian Dior Couture,and Shobhaa De,Varun Bahl,Haseena and Mahesh Jethmalani,Yash Birla,Rita Dhody,Francois Pujolais,Narendra Kumar,Madhoo Shah,Aarti and Kailash Surendranath,Celina Wadia,Queenie Singh,Karan Johar,Dino Morea,Chunky Pandey,Raveena Tandon and Monisha Jaisingh. The flowing wine coupled with exquisite dinner set the evening rolling and raising the clamour of music,gossip and laughter.

Upping the glam quotient were ladies Sushmita Sen,Deepika Padukone,Shilpa Shetty,Malaika Arora Khan,Suzanne Roshan,Mehr Rampal and Genelia. The contemporary Dior couture modelled Sushmita,Shilpa,Monikangana Dutta and others appeared relatively dull when pitted against the classic Dior couture.

The showstopper was a subtle pink Banarasi sari,designed by Christian Dior for the Princess of Belgium,and an embroidered kurta made in India for him — both on display at the party — are symbolic of Dior’s long-standing Indian affair.