 ARCHIVES...
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The catwalk crawl
Nowadays fashion folk leave no adjective untouched. Neither do they leave anything to imagination…the cuts and lengths becoming more bold and beautiful than ever before…exposing much more shape and curve than exposed ever before…coupling the catwalk do with all sorts of in elements and in spots. Couture has come of age in Goa, accept models, designers and wearers. Seven-shade spectacle
The centrally laid out catwalk jutted into the tightly packed, very informal crowd at the happening place. Dusky female and male models swung in style, virtually over our shoulders, parading a glamorous mix of couture, which hailed from the studios of seven modern Indian designers. Two of designers were: Saviojon from Siolim and Ranji Kelekar from Ponda. The others were Sarah Eapen, Nahid Merchant, Aki Narula, Leena Tipnis (Linarika) and Priyadarshini Rao. Each designer put on show his or her own best cut, line and length for the excited audience. The collection was a kind of colourful and mod fusion for a younger crowd. The crowd comprised of a lot of foreigners, and "mainly of shop clients, who actually buy from the Sosa's", according to Saviojon. "My collection didn't really have a distinct look or theme, but it presented different moods in dressing which I go through and transform into outfits from fabrics," said Saviojon, one of the most innovative, young designers of India, retailing at exclusive outlets. Next morning, at Panjim Inn, in the Latin quarter of Goa's capital city, I happened to meet Saviojon, Sarah Eapen, Nahid Merchant and Ranji Kelekar, pouring over the lovely pictures of the previous evening. Sarah Eapen, who was one of the students who represented India at the Air France show in Paris, was mighty pleased with the popular response at show. She said, "It was nice and open. There was a whole lot of casualness for the show at Tito's, which went nicely with our clothes. Though we are serious with the clothes, what we displayed at Tito's was not meant for serious occasions." "Goa has her own style, which is more relaxed and not over-the-top dressing…more of understated elegance. I would love to exhibit in Goa again and again," gushed Sarah, who indulges in earthy tones and creates textures of various sorts in natural fibres and cottons. Nahid Merchant, pretty as the patterns she creates out of fabrics, found "Calangute…a very hep village, more hep than Bombay…almost". Nahid prefers creating abstract compositions on two-dimensional surface, which attains another dimension when draped around a shapely form. Hers is western and fusion line of gowns, trousers and tunics…red teamed with black, white, beige and greyish green. Says Ranji Kelekar, from Ponda, given to fusion of Indian and western styles, "I like my garments to have an Indian touch. Yesterday's collection was my kind of fusion for a younger crowd, in tones of dull gold, brown and tissue organza, with running-stitch detailing." The ultimate highlight of the Sosa spectacle at Tito's was daring model, Diandra Soares, who stunned the entire audience, turning out totally bald, really bald, for the climax of Saviojon's presentation. Hi-Fly Fashion
This time round Guida has been introducing the fashion conscious to her two-floor Madame Butterfly boutique in Panjim city, to deal with beauty and fashion under one roof. Whether it be lovely tresses or trendy dresses, Guida's scissors have always stood out bold and beautiful, someone was saying.
Choreographed by Gavin Miguel from the television ad media, the show had famed Mumbai model--Tora Khasgir (Gladrags '98, BPL and Raymond), Faith Wadia (a '98 Gladrags runner-up modelling for Lakhme, Mavis Dias (Miss India finalist), Binal Trivedi, and models from Goa proper--Uma Chiplunkar, Emme, Lisel Britto, Abdul Majid and Sandeep Kulshetra. Joel D'Souza |
Goa
seems to be in a deadly hurry to dish out so many things and not the least
among them is fashions, for the hep and moneyed, before the 20th century
sees its end soon. Fashion shows are becoming quite common in Goa, and
pleasantly enough shifting their focus from the city highspots to the
outskirts and Goa's splendid beaches--Anjuna, Baga and even Utorda. 
Sosa's,
a prominent Panjim store for designer wear, threw up its own fashion show
at Tito's, at Baga-Calangute, on November 27. 
"The
Look Ahead" fashion show put up by Guida's Madame Butterfly at Zeebob
on the Utorda beach, on December 4, was a fab show by all accounts. It
was quite an exotic eyeful of shapely models donning elegant clothes,
displaying all that's neat and worth wearing, coming from the 20-odd-year
expertise of Guida Sheikh, the famed hairdresser from Fontainhas in Panjim.
She's had the privilege of putting up some of the earliest fashion shows
in Goa with country's top models.
There
was no better way than to throw up a sizzling event like "The Look Ahead"
to break the news of her fabulous venture.