Lakmé Fashion Week Winter/Festive 2018 took place from the 22nd until the 26th of August at The St. Regis, Mumbai. The 38th season was all about pushing boudaries as it focused on themes like sustainability, innovation and inclusivity. 50 or so designers showcased the latest fashion, style & beauty trends.
The grand finale by designer Monisha Jaising was a great spectacle including Cirque du Soleil artists. Who better to walk the ramp for Monisha’s collection Shades of a Diva, than the Bollywood diva herself Kareena Kapoor Khan. She looked like a goddess, draped in a holographic fabric, ancient Greek style.
The rise of a new generation – Budding actress Janhvi Kapoor, daughter of the late actress Sridevi and film producer Boney Kapoor, made her Lakmé Fashion Week debut in a design by Nachiket Barve from his collection Millenial Maharanis. Officially Janhvi represents Generation Z, but both generations are, as Rita Ora sings it, HOT RIGHT NOW. The media says that this generation values sustainability, is extremely tech-savvy and is seen as culturally diverse, tolerant and accepting.
This perfectly describes the theme of this edition, as it showed us fashion is for everyone: regular or plus size, LGBT, no matter the gender, race, class, sexuality, disability, age etc. Everyone has a chance to shine and express themselves.
One Lakmé Fashion Week tradition that is here to stay is the appearance of the Bollywood showstopper. This year it seemed nearly every designer had a showstopper from the film industry to showcase their final piece. I must admit, it is great marketing/PR. It is like Anna Wintour’s controversial decision years back to put celebrities on the Vogue magazine cover instead of high fashion models. It was a decision that had to be made for the sake of the magazine’s future. The new generations want to see their idols in the hottest fashion pieces. They are todays trendsetters alongside the influencers.
I do however feel India has a large amount of topmodels that also deserve to be the center of attention, which is why my favorites picks from Lakmé Fashion Week don’t JUST include the celebrity showstoppers.
Aditi Rao Hyadri walks for Jayanti Reddy – Angal Bedi and Neha Dhupia for Payal Singhal
Disha Patani & Shahid Kapoor for Amit Aggarwal
Malaika Arora Khan for Anushree Reddy – Monisha Jaising
Nupur Kanoi – Punit Balana
Prachi Desai for Julie Shah – Esha Deol and Hema Malini for Sanjukta Dutta
Saaksha & Kinni – Ritu Kumar
Jayanti Reddy – Jhanvi Kapoor for Nachiket Barve
Diana Penty for Disha Patil – Kirti Kharbanda walks for Tahweave
Jacqueline Fernandez walks for Ashish Soni – Sushmita Sen at the RmKV X Sunita Shanker show
