Mediapersons at the at India Fashion Week, waiting for a controversy, have finally got their hands on something meaty. At Mumbai-based designer Krishna Mehta’s fashion show today, a model (Tupur Chatterjee) walked on the ramp wearing an outfit designed by Delhi-based designers Nikhil and Shantanu. The outfit was a white linen dress made by the designers last year. ‘‘I have no idea how that happened,’’ a confused and stammering Mehta said. ‘‘I didn’t design the dress and I have no idea how it got into my fashion show.’’ The explanation that’s been provided is of an extraordinary mishap. Model Carol Gracias had bought the dress from Nikhil and Shantanu in February and worn it at a trial fitting last week. At trial fittings, designers make models try on clothes they later wear on the ramp to perfect the size and measurement. Gracias lost her dress at the fittings, and it somehow made its way into Mehta’s suitcases when an errant intern mistook Gracias’s lost dress for one of Mehta’s creations as Mehta was also presenting a similar line in white linen. Tupur Chatterjee was assigned to wear Gracias’s lost dress, and Mehta claims, she just never noticed it until it came on the ramp. But Gracias, watching the show, recognised her lost dress immediately. ‘‘Nikhil and Shantanu have gone on record to say I am innocent and an accident such as this could happen to anybody,’’ says Mehta. ‘‘No designer will ever steal from another.’’ Mehta has been designing for almost 20 years now. She recently shut her store on Napeansea Road due to poor profits and has announced she will be tying up with a French label, Maxim. The models, meanwhile, were not available for comment.
