India Couture Week: Behind-the-scenes probe of how spectacle comes to stage

Currently in its 10th year, ICW is a big deal for designers as it marks their yearly couture line

It is a sweltering Thursday afternoon and a badly jetlagged Varun Bahl, just back from Barcelona, has been in a flurry of meetings with his choreographers, set designers and tailors. With barely 10 days left for the FDCI India Couture Week, the fashion designer has his hands full.

After the successful showing of his Vintage Garden collection last year, Bahl is trying a different theme for this edition. He is combining his trademark floral motifs with elements from the art deco and art nouveau movement, for which he spent time in Barcelona visiting for inspiration the home of architect Antoni Gaudi, who was an integral part of the Modernista movement.

Currently in its 10th year, India Couture Week (ICW) is a big deal for designers as it marks the announcement of their yearly couture line. Nearly 8,000 people attend this by-invitation-only event; it reaches 1.73 million people on Twitter; and the Instagram posts around it create 7.68 crore impressions with a total reach of 12.7 million (figures for the 2016 edition).

So much so that many couturiers sell their entire collection as soon as the show is over, says Sunil Sethi, president, Fashion and Design Council of India (FDCI), which presents the event. And, orders for a hit ensemble sometimes continue to come in for years.

All this makes ICW one of the most awaited events in the country’s fashion calendar. It has come a long way from the first edition held in Mumbai in 2008, when not everyone was sold on the idea of celebrating couture and most wanted to focus only on the pret market. What started as a four-day event has now grown into a week-long extravaganza. This year, 14 couturiers including Tarun Tahiliani, Rohit Bal, Gaurav Gupta, Monisha Jaising, Manav Gangwani and Rina Dhaka will brandish their creations over 13 shows.

As the 32,000 sq ft of covered area at Delhi’s Taj Palace waits to be prepped for its annual tryst with fashion, not many realise that behind the sashaying silks, bright spotlights and larger-than-life sets is an army of thousands of people working night and day to put the spectacle together.

Models are picked by a panel of three designers and three choreographers who create a fixed list of 40 models

Malini Agarwal, founder of fashion and lifestyle blog, MissMalini, ticks the names of the people involved off her fingers: the FDCI team, choreographers such as Aparna Bahl, makeup artists Sonic Sarwate and Mickey Contractor from MAC, Ambika Pillai, set designers such as Sumant Jayakrishnan, the PR team, lighting designers, DJs, live performers, singers, dancers and, most important, the designers’ own teams. “I have eight to nine assistants, who have their own assistants. Then there are embroiderers, pattern masters, cutwork pattern makers and so on,” says Bahl.

Add to this sizeable army the students from fashion schools, who work as ushers and man the registration desk, ironing teams, florists, event consultants, stage designers, printers and card designers.

This juggernaut of activity sets its course months in advance. Designers, who are now clocking 16 hours a day, start working on the collection seven to eight months before the show: travelling for research, sourcing material, meeting craftsmen and karigars across the length and breadth of the country. Samples are created and then trimmed to finally include only the finest garments. Some designers even finalise their showstopper, ideally a Bollywood star, this early on and craft the outfit that he or she will wear. Last year, Gangwani reportedly had his showstopper Kangana Ranaut’s outfit — maroon choli with mirror-work paired with a heavily embroidered lehenga and mesh dupatta — ready nearly six months in advance.

While the designers are knee-deep in the creative process, FDCI starts taking care of the logistics: venues and dates have to be finalised, sponsors and partners have to be roped in, choreographers and models need to be selected, and lighting specialists have to be briefed. Besides the partners enlisted by FDCI, designers also get their private sponsors and partners on board. Once the venues and dates are finalised, the task of getting permissions begins: from the fire department, police, electricity, excise, and entertainment and luxury taxation departments.

Since models are the face of the collections, their selection happens after much deliberation by a panel of three designers and three choreographers who create a fixed list of 40 models. An additional list of 20 stand-by models is also drawn. “For pret, many designers feel that foreign models carry the collection better,” says Sethi. “However, for couture, they prefer Indian models. For this event (ICW), 90 to 95 per cent of the models are Indian.”

As the countdown begins, the models start on a special diet and a 5-am workout plan. Lakshmi Rana, a well-recognised face in the fashion industry, doesn’t mind the early morning workouts and on-site preparations. “Before any fashion week, including Couture, I usually do make sure that I indulge in a diet that is more protein based to achieve an optimum level of fitness,” says Rana who does eight shows on an average for ICW. “The fact that we are going to be watched very closely by the best in the fashion fraternity motivates us to work harder on our physical outlook. Rest and catching up on sleep before the hectic week is a good idea as well.”

The models also work closely with the designers and choreographers on what spaces to avoid on the set, the sequences, timing and the movement of the garments “which are usually very heavy,” says Rana. On the day of the show, the models and the makeup team start work four to five hours before the ramp walk.

As the designers get down to giving form to their vision, Swarovski, which calls itself the “ingredient facilitator”, starts narrowing down its list of 200,000 products to handpick the perfect crystal creations for designers such as Bal and Tahiliani.

Lighting plans are also drawn up. “Lighting is a highly specialised job as it accentuates the best of the collection,” says Sethi. For this, FDCI invites two specialists from Mumbai: Viraf Pocha and Lloyd Albuquerque. “We also have a vendor in Delhi. We have got him to import special profile lights. This wasn’t happening in earlier editions,” Sethi adds. Not surprisingly, the cost of lighting alone runs into lakhs of rupees.

Alongside, choreographers and couturiers start brainstorming about the music. Some designers have a very clear idea of the kind of music they want, says choreographer Asha Kochhar. For instance, last year, Gangwani wanted his friends, sarod virtuosos Ayaan and Amaan Ali Bangash, to curate the music for his collection titled Begum-e-Jannat.

While Kochhar works on the tracks, set designers start creating 3D designs. With each year, the sets have become more and more opulent: from Tahiliani’s recreation of the durbar last year or Malhotra’s mirrored runway.

This year, while Jaising plans to bring in elements of the opera, Gangwani has envisaged a 400-foot walkway. Gupta is adding a new dimension to the mythological forest by creating a floating space in between. In a first, this year, designers will be paying for the majestic sets and will also bear a few logistical expenses.  

Weeks before the show, the makeup and hair teams from MAC, too, begin work on the looks, based on inspirations shared by the designers. “Mickey Contractor and I have a team of 30 artistes,” says Sarwate, global senior artiste with MAC. Designers who push them to think out of the box excite him and his team. “For instance, Gaurav (Gupta) wanted a really dramatic look last year, so we cut out long eye lashes from paper.”

ICW kicks off on July 24. By early next week, all these creative capsules will start coming together. Preparations will begin to erect the stages at the main showing areas at the Taj Palace and also at the three offsite venues: Bikaner House, The Lodhi and The Kila in Mehrauli. By July 16, individual looks are likely to be put together by the designers with the fittings happening by July 23. That’s when the MAC team will step in to test the final look. By then choreographers, too, would have finished stitching the music together.

The ones who will be the longest on their toes once the event begins are the production and design teams. “They leave each day only after the last show is done, which is usually after 11.15 pm,” says Shaina Sharma (name changed on request), who has been on usher duty for three editions and on the registration desk for one and who now knows the FDCI seating plans “like the back of my hand”. Similarly, makeup and hair teams are on their feet throughout.

 Sharma remembers coming to the venue in the morning and sitting in the empty main showing areas, waiting for duties to be assigned. The hours of wait allowed her to observe the camaraderie between the designers and the celebrities who come in for the show. “Last year, Fawad Khan was the showstopper for Manish Malhotra. During rehearsals, it was amazing to see both chatting away in Punjabi like long-lost pals,” she says.

While designers get to watch the show backstage on screens, some don’t as they believe it brings bad luck. And then there are the last-minute surprises. “Zippers could snap, a model could fall ill just before walking the ramp, a set could fall apart. Sometimes, something as big as a showstopper backing out last minute can happen,” says Agarwal.

Agarwal once asked Bahl about his take on these last-minute shockers; he told her things always turn out for the best at the end. “Lots of pieces turn out even more beautiful than you imagined while sketching,” he said to her.

So, how do the designers remain calm through the frenzy? “I have my friends who consume my madness and keep me sane,” says Gangwani. Bahl, however, feels there is no way one can unwind through the chaos of the show. “Garments are still being stitched until the very last minute,” he says. “I keep looking at my collection again and again.” Sometimes, the last-minute editing, just before the model steps on to the ramp, can make all the difference.

 All this for the couple of hours when the couturiers will take centre stage and the ramp will shine with their creations. Some like Jaising don’t like to extend their show beyond a couple of minutes. “The actual show should not be more than 18 minutes,” she says. “You don’t want people to get bored and start texting each other.”

Photo: Sanjay K Sharma

Monisha Jaising (above) and Gaurav Gupta (top) at their workshops preparing for the FDCI India Couture Week; Lakshmi Rana (far left, right) readying for the ramp backstage. Photo: Kamlesh Pednekar