Lakme Fashion Week: Backdrop steals limelight at Rohit Bal’s grand finale

The historic building of St Xavier’s College, Mumbai served as a dramatic backdrop for fashion designer Rohit Bal’s grand finale showcase for the spring-summer 2016 edition of Lakme Fashion Week (LFW). Bollywood actress Kareena Kapoor Khan, who is also the face of the event’s title sponsor Lakme, was showstopper at the show.

When asked about the idea behind the backdrop, Bal said: “The credit for that goes to Lakme. Purnima Lamba, head of innovations at Lakme, wanted the show to have such lighting and I think this is the first time anybody created something like this. The backdrop was lit really well and blended beautifully with the show.”

He added: “I think the only aspiration as a designer, an actor or an entrepreneur is that we always want to do something new and set a standard for others to follow, for others to aspire and be something.”

Unlike most finale shows at LFW where there has been a heavy representation of Bollywood’s glitterati, Bal’s show focused more on creativity, with limited names from tinsel town gracing the front row. Huma Qureshi and author Shobhaa De were some of the popular faces spotted there.

The collection was titled Koroshini, an Urdu word which means to illuminate. The theme depicted the essence of life. The fabrics ranged from handloom mulmuls, chanderis, hand-spun silks and rich silk velvets. The collection also featured crafts such as shibori hand crinkling (Japanese tie-dying technique) and organic dyes.

Showstopper Kapoor Khan was excited about walking the runway in the outfit. “This is the first time I am walking for Rohit Bal, but I think his clothes are amazing. His clothes reflect his personality, which is very ostentatious... I think super sexy and super amazing. I love it especially because it has this chand [moon] on it, so I like it. I would personally love to keep it for next 50 years for my family as heirloom,” she said.