Props have come to play a major role in ensuring that fashion shows are more than just boring displays of clothes At the end of designer Ankita Bhargavs show Walk with Me at the just-concluded Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week (WIFW),Delhi,nobody talked as much about the collection as about the pebble-strewn 80 feet by 8 feet runway. During the show the models had lumbered down cautiously on the rough marble blocks,specially bought from Kota. Even though Tamara Moss,who opened the show,tripped before regaining composure,the enthusiastic cheer for the set designer Sumant Jayakrishnan indicated that it was a huge hit with the audience. The look we tried to create was of a Zen garden with flowers in the backdrop. So the marble chips and the pebbles went with the theme of the show, said Bhargav,23,who churned out four looks for the show. While internationally,the focus of fashion weeks is on keeping the attention on clothes and making everything else secondary to it,in India,most shows are incomplete without some amount of props to deliver theatrics on the ramp. So designers are sparing no expenses to mount a spectacle with quirky props,art installations,or even models stomping down the runway made of pebbles. Props can look quite refreshing if it is done smartly. We all love Guddas (Rohit Bal) shows,not just for the clothes,but for the great atmosphere he manages with the sets, says socialite Ayesha Thapar,a regular at fashion events in India,referring to Bals penchant for doing up the ramp with organza petals,chic lighting,even real flowers. At this years event,the runways were plush with muslin curtains,quirky chairs,cabinets,pillars and even bells. While Ranna Gill had a huge chandelier by design house Klove,designer Gaurav Gupta roped in little-known artist Akshay Rathod,30,who did five 7 feet x 3 feet light boxes that sported collages of red checks juxtaposed with images of a model,to go with the theme of the collection. The light boxes added an art punch and didnt,at any point,outdo the outfits, said Gupta. At the grand finale by Rajesh Pratap Singh,the sets were jazzed up by Jayakrishnan with sheets of unfinished muslins tacked together. The models entered from opposite ends (instead from the centre) and stamped down cracked steps on to a runway,put together with wooden boards with nuts and bolts visible on the surface. The show was about work-in-progress,so it made sense to hang muslin garments on the background, said Singh,who got a group of singers from Delhi-based Artists Unlimited to sing Us and Them,towards the end of the show. The days of the bland fashion shows are over. Designers are also full time artists and theyll do everything to tell their story through their clothes. The props serve to take the theme forward, says Delhi designer Nida Mahmood,known for her quirky presentations on the ramp. Her show,titled Sadak Chaap saw a burly guy sitting at the entrance of the ramp,getting himself shaved,with an antique radio blaring in the background,even as coltish models walked past in quirky outfits. While many argue that on-stage histrionics take the attention away from the clothes,surprisingly buyers from the West seem to be enjoying the spectacle being put up. I am a regular at fashion weeks in Paris and New York but you find an energy and vitality in India,which is missing elsewhere, says Tomoko Inuzuka,of Beams,a Tokyo-based boutique known for stocking Manish Arora creations.
