Written By : Source: INDIAN EXPRESS . Tarun Tahiliani sealed the closing of the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week with a glitzy show
Like every year, Tarun Tahiliani promised his 1000-odd guests that the finale will be a grand affair.
So it was, with the funnel-shaped entrance through which the models emerged from behind a smoky screen, leaving the well-heeled front row – comprising the grand-dame of herbal cosmetics, Shahnaz Husain, television star Gauhar Khan, Kiran Nadar, HCL founder Shiv Nadar’s wife, designer Gitanjali Kashyap and her husband Sumeet Nair- gasping. Meanwhile, Tahiliani’s wife Sailaja, kitted in a leopard print sari by the designer, played the perfect host.
The collection titled ‘New Democracy’ with 60-odd looks, came with promises of a fuller volume and longer length, and a defined bias towards couture than pret. The skirts were heavily pleated, jackets layered; there were corset kurtas and churidars, ala Umrao Jaan.
Actor and model-at-large Chitrangada Singh walked down in a silk sari cinched at the waist. Other notable ensembles included keyhole-cut gowns, printed tunics worn with wrap tops and silk jackets paired with sarongs.
After the western outfits which won praise from a gaggle of high-profile buyers, the coy brides took over.
Models walked out in kurtas worn with velvet corsets, with epaulette-detailing on shoulders, and panelled lehengas worn with gauzy kurtis and Nehru jackets.
Finally, it was Tahiliani’s muse, actor Shilpa Shetty who walked out to the song Ali sung by 40-odd Barmer musicians sitting in the wings.
Trussed in a voluminous lehenga and an embroidered bodice, she sent the crowd in a photo-clicking frenzy. “Every time, I walk for him, he seems to bring out a different avatar in me,” smiled Shetty, post the show. For Tahiliani, Shetty is “always 21”. Dishing out the tired rhetoric, Shetty blithely admitted to being a Tahiliani fan.
“His cuts are western, but the look is ethnic.
“I’m always enamoured by his clothes,” she said.