The gleam doctor

GREEN ROOM: Wolter Dammers has changed the face of dressing room for India Fashion Week.

It was bad lighting in the previous fashion weeks that Wolter Dammers, designer-producer, S2 Events, (hired by Percept D'Mark for his expertise on designing fashion weeks) set out to change foremost at the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week.

Dammers has given front and back lighting on the ramp instead of just front lighting, and fitted mostly white lights instead of coloured ones to stop distortion of the actual look a designer might want to recreate.

Says Dammers, "The simple and pure look by reducing colour for the stage lighting is giving excellent photo options to the photographers, a good platform for exhibiting to the designers, and the real look and feel of the shows to the buyers."

Dammers team of four people is using local material and technical services for the event. In order to lend the ramp a more international appeal, he has dropped the height of the earlier high-catwalks. "It's more comfortable for the photographers," he says.

The green room is one big main room divided into sections that are adjustable. The green room has collapsible shutters that allow space to be used flexibly.

In the lines of the Paris and London fashion weeks where two-three ramps are set, the two ramps at India Fashion Week have, according to Preeta Singh, COE, Percept D' Mark, "made buyers happy with more shows fitted in less time".

The ramp covers are changeable this time and designers are setting up props at the show. Even additional projectors have been placed in the front and back, and each designer's show has the services of a DJ console for live music mixing.

In all, feels Dammers, "This fashion week is designed to be business oriented, apart from fashion's glamour." Adds Singh, "It's less party and more hard work and business this time."

Both Dammers and Singh are tight-lipped on the estimated costs for managing the fashion week, though, says Singh, "The scale of this fashion week is much bigger, and so are the costs at about 150 per cent more than at previous fashion weeks."