ICynosure: Shows and Events

Pearl Academy, India’s leading private institution for Fashion, Design and Business; founded in Delhi now has three campuses across the country in Delhi, Jaipur and Mumbai. Portfolio is the institute's annual graduating show where students from various courses display their design creatives and the best works get nominated for awards. Since this year was Pearl Academy Mumbai’s first graduating class, #PearlPortfolio2016 #MumbaiChapter was it’s first event in the city.

The event was inaugurated by Shri Shivanand Hulyalkar, Vice Chairperson, Ministry of Textiles, Government of India while Mr. Nachiket Barve, renowned fashion designer and Mr. Vineet Gautam, CEO Bestseller were the guests of Honour. The students from the academy exhibited their projects and the grand finale concluded with a fabulous fashion show followed by the award ceremony.

With over 70 projects at display, the inaugural Portfolio saw some revolutionary ideas in fashion, design and creative business. One of the students, who worked for the software giant TCS for over 3 years quit her job and joined Pearl Academy and came up with a business plan to create an app to connect volunteers with the elderly who require them. The model based on community based palliative care has been nominated for the prestigious Global James McGuire award. Fashion students came up with interesting ideas like a fashion line inspired from planet Mars and sustainable fashion fabrics.

Unlike routine graduating ceremonies, the PearlPortfolio featured varied lines including casual wear, bridal and maternity wear and kids and mens wear. Below are the three things that I loved about the event…

Installations at the Exhibition:

Collaborations with Industry Bodies:

Versatility in Design:

Portfolio’16 ended on a high note with an awards ceremony. The winners were thrilled to receive awards from the industry stalwarts present at the event.

You can find out more about what Pearl Academy stands for, their faculty and the various courses they offer on their website.
- Heena

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Pregnancy is by far the most beautiful phase in a woman’s life, however when I was expecting I has a lot of inhibitions about the way I looked and the way my body was growing. When I was expecting my beauty glow ensured a steady radiance and an intense shine, that was unmissable; however I did shy away from flaunting my baby bump and expressing myself through my growing body.

But more recently when I saw some #YummyMummy proudly flaunt their growing bodies I was mesmerised. During the Lakme Fashion Week, Carol Gracias looked as gorgeous as ever with her baby bump and it was a great step in breaking fashion week stereo-types and carving a path for all women alike. More recently the social media pages of TV actor Shveta Salve is buzzing with heart-warming pictures of her pregnancy journey.

Bio-Oil a specialist skincare oil that helps improve the appearance of scars, stretch marks and uneven skin tone; its advanced formulation, which contains the breakthrough ingredient PurCellin Oil, also makes it highly effective for numerous other skin concerns, including ageing skin and dehydrated skin.

The brand took a stunning step to celebrate motherhood bodies by organising a #YummiliciousWalk with these two oh-so pregnant beauties and 12 mums-to-be who won an online contest to walk the ramp on the eve of Mothers Day. The walk conceptualised with a thought to help expecting mums shed their inhibitions and flaunt their gorgeous bodies, cherishing these beautiful memories marked a transformation of sorts. A many of firsts for Carol, who conceptualised and choreographed the show. The gorgeous ladies were dressed in outfits by Innaya by Shivangi Lahoty and accessories with traditional baby shower floral jewellery. The beauty of the soft pastels and intricate embroidery added an unmatched charm to the entire styling. The maxi skirts stole my heart and I cannot wait to flaunt one one.

Not only were the #YummyMummy (ies) given a platform to glow but also the event had celebrity gynaecologist Dr. Kiran Coelho and dermatologist Dr. Rashmi Shetty answering their queries about pregnancy and post-pregnancy concerns.

It was great to see the gorgeous ladies take the ramp with all the confidence and dazzle the audience with their camaraderie and confidence. Seeing each of them cheering the others was remarkable when crowned the titles of Cutest Baby Bump, Gorgeous Glow and Yummy Mummy.

Lets not forget the 'men of the moment' too and applaud the dads-to-be too, after all they have a huge contribution to the said status. :) Surprisingly the men blushed more then the women!

Bharti Gohel with Kalpesh Gohel, the couple took home the 'Cutest Baby Bump' title

Ruby Jain Shah with Kaushal Shah, the couple took home the 'Gorgeous Glow' title

Parul Sardesai with Saurabh Lokhande, the couple took home the #YummyMummy title

All in all it was a fun event and I personally think Bio Oil should make this an annual event that encourages mums-to-be to celebrate and enjoy their pregnancy phase rather than shying away from the world.

- Heena

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As a fashion week regular, one thing I sure swear by are some of the essentials that a fashion blogger needs to keep in mind. There are a few must have to survive the fashion week and make sure you turn up every morning as fresh as a daisy and go back home with an amazing bank of images to write about.

Comfortable shoes, a roomy bag, statement pieces of accessories, long lasting make-up and blogger tools are the most important things one has to carry all around. I see a lot of bloggers carry multiple gadgets like a camera, video recorder and voice recorder around and I really wonder how they manage juggling all of these things. I prefer to carry just my LYF mobile’s #LYFsmartphones, Earth ‘Element’ from their range which not only helps me give my readers and followers an insight into the fashion world, but also is an all-inclusive tool completely fuss free.

The Earth is a gorgeous looking phone in white with gold trims all around, and though its a very common design there is something about it that instantly appeals to me. Apart from the standard stuff, the phone has a notification LED around the power button that lights up in different colours depending upon the type of notification received. I am in particular going to speak about the battery and camera performance as that's what is most important to us bloggers.

The battery is simply outstanding, especially with the multiple apps running on the phone at the same time, it sure outlives most of its competitors. The plus point for me was that in-spite of continuously using it for practically the entire day that phone did not feel warm at any point in time. The screen is quite large and good to navigate through the social media platforms easily.

I took a little time to completely understand how the dual camera feature works but once I did, there has been no looking back. The phone beautifully guides the users to the camera's app and it offers numerous setting to play with. The primary sensor is 13 megapixels and video quality records at 1080 pixels, which is really promising. Apart from this the camera has two important settings Refocus and Foregrounder. Refocus allows to set focus on a particular point on the screen and then vary the density accordingly. Foregrounder is a more manual refocus that allows colour filters and allows to further refine the pictures.

So a smart phone with a great battery life and one that can ensure good quality pictures and videos is a must -have. If your current handset doesn't do the trick and you are forced to carry multiple gadgets that weigh you down, invest in a great friendly phone like LYF mobile's #LYFsmartphones.

Here is a glimpse of my #LakméFashionWeek Summer Resort 2016 closing show by Rohit Bal through my #Earth LYF smartphone. Enjoy.

I was lucky enough to get front row seat and thus just went clicking with my #LYFsmartphones.
- Heena

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The 16th edition of Lakmé Fashion Week held in Mumbai, featured more than 90 designers some of who are the whose who of the industry. I witnessed most of the shows first hand, sitting admits the fashion industry thanks to LYF mobiles who were the associate sponsors. The euphoria of Manish Malhotra who kicked off an elegant opening show, the heritage collection of Gaurang Shah, the ElektroCouture from Berlin showing they edge, bespoke electronic wearable technology to the Emporia collection by Wendell Rodricks to the closing show of avant-garde designer Rohit Bal has made the last four days spectacular.

With bollywood showstoppers to standout collections, #LFW 2016 also has it’s share of talented young designers who did make a mark on the Indian Fashion scenario right next to the big names in the fashion world. Though I’d love to have a piece from each of the 90 designers who showcased at #LFW, my must-have designer from this years showing are:

Ka-Sha by Karishma Shahani Khan

Karishma who graduated from London College of Fashion showcased a collection that focused on a form of storytelling. Highly influenced by multi-layered cultures and ever-changing social landscapes, Ka-Sha endeavours to celebrate handcraft in all its forms, adding to the individualistic expression in each product. Through a balance of localization and globalization, matching contrast with harmony and merging art with sustainability, the label aims to re-interpret materials with love from India.

Aiman by Aiman Agha

The design philosophy that the collection by Aiman followed was illustrative exploration, experimentation and expression. The show was an absolute transfusion of sophisticated and meticulously tailored garments with exquisite embroidery and fresh colours. The silhouettes and forms were futuristic with beautiful cuts and bright coloured embroidery. The line 'Recreate’ represented a pictorial documentation of a love sonnet, that emphasised the dainty collection beautifully.

Just as the week comes to a close, I cannot wait to go back and experiment with my style and inculcate some amazing things I’ve witnessed and captured on my #LYFsmartphones. The Earth element of the phone did not let me down and went on to compliment me and my style throughout the last 5 days of the most fashionable event of the city.

- Heena

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The surprises that Lakmé Fashion Week has in store every year keeps fashion enthusiasts on the style edge. This year there was a huge buzz about #DoubtIsOut with a huge photo wall near the main stage with fashion conscious labels. The hashtag #DoubtIsOut kept the intrigue going and I was looking forward to know more about it.

On day 3, a day of back-to-back line up of amazing designers was making my heart flutter, my mind race with design elements and my #LYFsmartphones click click. After attending Aiman, Dhruv Kapoor and my favourite Payal Singhal, Nikhil Thampi, Little Shilpa I was tuned to finally end the day with Anita Dongre’s magnetism. However that was when the surprise trust the scene! In came a flash-mob in their full glory and began an most amazing dance routine without the cautiousness of gender, age and size.

With an afternoon show the next day, #DoubtIsOut was upmost on my mind since the amazing flash-mob, with its unique theme of nothing should stop you irrespective of who you are.

Cut to 3.00 pm the next day, Reliance Industries launched its online fashion portal Ajio.com with the preview of its collection on the show that unveiled its #DoubtIsOut campaign with five unexpected show stoppers. Actor Sunny Leone, transgender activist Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, comedian Bharti Singh, evergreen star Helen and first woman fighter pilot Suman Sharma. With so much thought going behind creating that engagement, keeping the mystic alive and bringing together these amazing woman the team deserves a huge round of applause.

Bollywood’s original dancing star Helen walked the ramp emphasising that ‘age is no bar’

Actor Sunny Leone sashayed down to reiterate ‘personal choice is no bar’

Fighter pilot Suman Sharma walked for ‘career is no bar’

Transgender activist Laxmi Narayan Tripathi wrapped up the show with her belief of ‘gender is no bar’

With a fabulous range of apparels, footwear and accessories AJIO.com will leverage Reliance’s strong sourcing, supply chain and retail operations capabilities to make a huge difference.

Apart from the amazing shows, this year Lakmé Fashion Week has been breaking a lot of stereotypes, what with a very pregnant Carol Gracia walking the ramp for Gaurang Shah to an out-an-out mens line 'Between the Lines’ by Kunal Rawal. Amazing isn't it.

- Heena

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One of few designers that I was looking forward to this season is the master of weaves, Gaurang. His exquisite handcrafted masterpieces that have a huge jamdani influence is a rare technique that is used in the current times, especially because it takes over 2 years to weave depending on the design, colour mix and intricacy. So even before you actually land a piece it is an heirloom piece, making it a very desirable piece of art one can even wear.

The range of sarees he puts together are a fusion of yarns like khaki, mugs silk, hussar silk, organza and silk. Bringing back the discontinued technique of weaving with no machine work Jamdani, is kept under the warp in the loom and is replicated by the weaver to the finest details with floral and geometrics references drawn from nature. In kanjeevaram sarees, the korvai weaving technique on the jacquard loom is revived with traditional motifs inspired by the temple art of the 16th century. The sarees and dresses created under the banner is textile art that is an amalgamation of traditional motifs with contemporary textures.

At his show on Day 2 of Lakmé Fashion Week Summer Resort 2016 vintage silhouettes and traditional textiles worked in tandem to bring out majestic earthly colours. Aptly titled Calico, the collection showcased an exquisite range of Indian wear especially saris, crafted to display a fusing handwoven textiles like khadi, muga silk and organza with the jamdani technique. A combination of motifs that ranged from Mughal floral elements to paithani designs.

The show was buzzing with live music by Manasi Scott and her band while models strutted down the ramp. The showcase had a display of saris along with other Indian outfits that reminded me of the Belle Epoch era with puffed up and ruffle-sleeved blouses after a series of dramatic floor-grazing gowns in nudes and delicate morning hues. The sharp pleats and dramatic ruffles were a refreshing break during the season with a spectacular Spanish twist.

Another aspect of the show that I loved was Carol Gracias looking as gorgeous as ever with her baby bump and kudos to the team to taking a step in breaking fashion week stereo-types and carving a path for all women alike.

Just as his collection was inspired with natural elements of life, the range of LYF Mobile phones too is inspired by natural elements… Earth, Water, Wind and Flame. I am covering this fashion week using the Earth phone that unleashes the photographer in me. With a dual camera of 13MP + 2MP, the phone ensures vivid pictures even at night. The breath-taking detail with ChromaFlash, Re-Focus, Fast Focus, and OptiZoom adds life to images and even allows to edit and perfect photos with intuitive tools. Apart from this the phone comes with marathon 3500 mAh battery which is a desirable piece of technology one can use.

- Heena

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