Sunday, October 21, 2007

LFW-the great indian laughter challenge




If you had enough of laughter challenge on TV then you must witness one of the Lakme Fashion Week shows held at NCPA, Mumbai...and see some of the models n the choreography in particular.
You might laugh a bit at the cost of designers suffering.
You would see a set of average models walking down the ramp on blaring music n even worse choreography (if there is any)…you would understand what I mean when before you enter the show arena you feel one of the privileged ones as simply everyone wants to be there, n then after a while you don't feel like that anymore. Honestly,you don't even laugh but somehow feel disgusted cos you spent 2 hrs negotiating through Mumbai road traffic to watch a 25 min show( not to forget the travel time back)...and you expect international standards for everything.

The whole idea of a fashion show is to have a good set of models complementing the clothes…otherwise a designer might as well put up an exhibition using hangers to display the clothes on. Whatever the so-called-range of models, barring 30% of them, in any of the shows I happened to see at LFW, the rest should have never have been there and the choreographers should never been hired cos they seem to have forgotten all about timing n beats. There are no pauses or even real poses or a certain body-language essential to make a good show. Even college students into choreography have better sense of timing. Whatever happened to the good old choreography when there were people like Shanti Chopra, Sharmila Rai Choudhry, Suresh Thomas, Hemant—who understood the value of timing n graceful walk…
Its called 'catwalk' because it all comes from the way a Cat walks-you get hypnotised by that feline grace! Unfortunately,the high level of commercialisation of fashion week leading to strong negotiations has led to many a top models opting out of it.
Had we not been ‘respectable invitees’ probably me, and couple of other very senior journalist friends would have somehow tripped couple of them!
Its gross injustice to designers who spend months in creating those designs n ultimately mediocre choreography n models should fail to give correct projection.
And lets not at all talk about the show-stoppers…one of shows I witnessed (talented designer Agnitmitra Paul from Calcutta)…had Minisha Lamba who came n went without anyone noticing her-they all looked above her head, she was so short-talk about stopping a show! She is undoubtedly one of the cutest people but ramp is definitely not the place for her and it took me half an hour to convince my journalist friend from Delhi that she is a well known film actress and when you are sitting in front of camera as a known face,your height doesn’t matter! It’s the news which ultimately matters boss!
Anyway…(yawn)… am really looking forward to see Madhur Bhandarkar’s film ‘Fashion’…

In photograph-Mugdha Godse-as usual one of the best models on ramp

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would not agree with this Mr. Talan completely but yes,commerce is eventually the driving force behind such initiatives and organisers have certainly compromised alot in recent times with quality of models participating! How come you have not talked about the designers so called aesthetic senses?

Anonymous said...

I agree with Neelesh, but partially. I was at the fashion week too. Indian designers have still not got their sensibilities in place. i agree that as a photographer, you'd want a perfect frame, models included. but the intrinsic purpose of a fashion week is commerce, and not theatrics.

As for he models, the less said the better. The walks are bad. the attitude, non-existent. What i find disturbing is that there isn't much fresh blood to excite. And there is no defining look of the season. All artists seem to work independently, creating their own look and style. Result: Dah! Unprofessional, to say the least. This is where Indian fashion lacks. The head does not know whether the hand is manicured. Most often, as in the case of our models, it isn't.

Anonymous said...
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Pravin Talan said...

Dear,I was at fashion week not as a photographer but as an audience...n I was certainly not looking at frames n models to shoot.I commented cos between 1990-2002 I produced/choreographed/marketed more than a hundred fashion shows n worked with legends like Deepak Malhotra, Meher Jessias, n Sushmita Sens of this industry n I know precisely how the commerce behind it works.
The point is 'one wrong' can never justify the other 'wrong'...the basic elements of a show have to be of a certain standard n atleast a bit close to how they are projected as...INTERNATIONAL...