Sabyasachi draws curtains on LFW day 1

Mumbai: Sabyasachi Mukherjee concluded day one of the Lakme Fashion Week (LFW) with a collection inspired by Aircel's corporate social responsibility project "Save The Tiger", but the designer's main clients Rani Mukerji and Vidya Balan skipped the event. Rani and Vidya usually wear outfits designed by Sabyasachi. Hence their presence was highly expected for the show. However, they couldn't make it. No other Bollywood face was also present in the audience, making the show a no celebrity event.

"Vidya is in Australia and Rani is shooting for a film with Aamir Khan. They both wanted to come but their schedules didn't permit, so it's our loss," the designer said.

Starting the show with a line of yellow, black and ivory tones inspired by the colours of the Indian tiger, Sabyasachi presented a collection that moved through the various decades of fashion.

There was the fun and freedom of the 1920s, followed by the elegance of the 1930s and 1940s. There were touches of the 1970s Boho chic and the 1980s daring look.

"There was no pressure when I was doing this show because for the first time I did a show where I got the brief from someone else. This was a show which was inspired by the 'Save the Tiger' initiative."

"There was not much I could do apart from lending my support because I have more than 17,000 women buying my clothes every year in this country. So if they can educate 17,000 more, this news will spread. I'm just lending my name to do my own little bit," Sabyasachi said.

"I wanted to do a collection which is about a grave issue but has a humour quotient. I wanted to do something which is a little caricaturish and animation related... something which is a little more fun."

"The collection has a very western approach in terms of silhouettes. So we have all sorts of silhouettes ranging from the 1920s to the 1980s. In the textures we used a lot of khadi, lot of hand based cotton, textured raw silk, French lace, etc," he said.

The collection included skirts and blouses, shirts, bikini tops, playsuits with flared hems, palazzos and even three short saris pioneered by the designer worn over long lush skirts. The earthy tones were beautifully matched with the brights which gradually emerged for the ensembles.