Runway Girls

Under a cruel fluorescent light,80 waif-like models sashayed down the makeshift ramp that had been erected in the office of Sunil Sethi,President of the Fashion Design Council of India in Delhi. They tried to catwalk with haute attitude,hoping to make the cut for the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week that kicks off on March 24. “For years,we have scouted for and nurtured some of India’s best-known models. It will be the same this time,too,” said Sethi. Most aspirants didn’t pass muster with the panel of judges — designers Ashish Soni,Anjana Bhargav and Rahul Khanna and choroegraphers Asha Kochhar and Aparna Bahl— who swiftly whittled down the number to a shortlist of 10.