Rites and rituals of the front row

Anyone in the fashion trade will tell you that the best kept secret about Fashion Weeks are the secret rites and rituals involving the front row seats, and which bottoms get to grace them at the shows.

Every designer wants to have a crowd of glamorous faces seated right up front to make their clothes look even better. And of course, every fashionista and socialite worth their sea salt, have a time-honoured fixation for being seated in the front row where their jewels, cheek bones and other assets can be captured best by paparazzi.

Ritu Kumar

In this context, veteran designer Ritu Kumar appears to have dealt with the issue quite effectively. The save the date text for her upcoming show for LFW mentions the words 'front row' not once, but twice.

'It is not going to be fun without you on (sic) the front row cheering,' begins the message and ends with 'please call for booking your front row.'

"What Kumar - always an industry pioneer - has done is made it a lot easier and quicker for everyone," says an industry insider. "No more discreet hints and nudges from invitees wanting to know if it's worth their while to attend. It cuts straight through the BS."

Indeed.

Singing through the sands of time
One of the abiding memories of our last trip to Goa was the of vivacious songstress, Shweta Shetty, responding to popular request by belting out an impromptu number one balmy evening at a friend's terrace party.

Shweta Shetty

As is known, the pop star, who has recently relocated to India after a stint in Germany, is a virtuoso performer. No surprises then that when we bumped into Shetty this weekend, she was looking excitedly forward to an upcoming musical venture. "'Reth, Song Of The Earth,' premiers in the first week of November at the NCPA," she informed.

"The genre is predominantly Rajasthan Sufi folk," said Shetty, whose last appearance in the musical, Man of La Mancha, had attracted favourable notice. "And I'm back to my theatre roots after 25 years," she said. "One last thing, it's a Hindi adaptation of the 'Merchant of Venice' set in Rajasthan, and I play the pivotal role of Shylock," she lets us know. Can't wait for this gender bender.

NCPA goes EDM
Anish Sood and Sahej Bakshi (aka Dualist Inquiry) are two of the most promising names in the Indian electronic music scene today. Now, word comes in that they have stormed the last bastion of musical resistance - that haven of Indian classical and opera in Mumbai - the NCPA itself. This weekend will see both young artists performing at the complex's Experimental Theatre on subsequent nights.

Anish Sood and Sahej Bakshi

"It's one of the best performance venues in the country and this is the first time they are opening their doors to electronic music so it's pretty special! We're building a special light setup and I'm also going to be playing a bunch of my unreleased tracks," says Sood. And why has the NCPA gone in this direction? "To reach out to a younger set of people," says a spokesperson.

And if EDM is not your thing, we hear there is an open bar...

A different kind of festive
We could not make it to designer Masaba Gupta's preview of her festive line on Saturday evening, but we did run into actress Dia Mirza, wearing what appeared to be a traditional floral ensemble from the collection later that night. It was pretty, we said to Gupta, when we spoke to her the next day. "But it appeared to be a departure from your regular style."

Radhika Apte, Masaba Gupta and Dia Mirza. Pic/Atul Kamble

"Yes, you're right," conceded Gupta. "I am consciously listening to what my market is telling me," she said. "And festive/trousseau/bridal wear is an important part of the business," she said. "No designer can ignore it." But is it something that you want to do, or is your decision market driven, we persisted.

Gupta took a deep breath. "I personally hate the idea of resembling a Christmas tree at weddings and festivals," she said. "So even as I cater to the market, I definitely have added my own vision: my festive clothes are not garish, and over powering, the outfits are minimal and pared down - drapes and kaftans with gold khadi work which can be paired with out-of-the-box suggestions for accessories in rose gold silver and old gold. It's festive wear for today's women." Nice!

Modern day Romeo and Juliet?
It's being spoken about as the Romeo and Juliet of Mumbai's upper classes. When the scion of this wealthy infrastructure clan with a blue chip surname had got engaged to the daughter of an equally wealthy jeweller, it was spoken about as the coupling of the decade, with both sides outdoing each other in planning the destination wedding of the century!

However, due to reasons unknown when the engagement was called off recently, what could have been a graceful parting of ways, has turned into a messy spat with much bad blood flowing between two of the city's prominent business clans.

And we are informed that the young couple in question who'd met as school students years ago, and had been very much in love are now not on talking terms, and what's more; accusations and counter accusations between the elders in their families are being traded about monies spent and promises made.

And naturally, given the high-profile names involved, the entire matter has become the talk of the city with many a household being dragged into the on going battle. Meet Mumbai's modern day Montagues and Capulets. For the sake of the young couple, we hope good sense prevails!