Men's fashion washout

India's first fashion week dedicated to men is over. Without mincing words, if this is what FDCI can up with after years of planning, then well, help will be required from beyond just the heavens.

For starters, the event was organised at extremely short notice. And it showed. Especially in the scale of the week. There were a few positives though. The association with a brand such as Van Heusen should help. The inhouse magazine was cheeky and attracted attention beyond the pix. Media coordination was smooth.

But the essentials were all wrong. A week primarily has to be about design and pushing boundaries there. And well, most designers, especially those who have been around for years, and for many of whom it has been a long cherished dream, came woefully short. For a landmark week, the tone was flippant. Many of the gay designers seemed to think this was a private party. More attention was paid to how many bare torsos you could show than the range within the collections.

Ravi Bajaj set of the week with his 'dandy collection', and as this was the first time he was participating, much was expected. It turned out to be much of what he had already shown earlier. And apart from the novelty factor some of the designers showing in Delhi for the first time, there was little to recommend them. Aslam Khan's collection seemed to be just that - a collection of what he could lay his hands on - with little thought to unity/ theme. Himmat Singh would been more suitable for Jaipur. Rajvi Mohan had a few refreshing tones - but might just have been more a factor of beach/ casual summer wear. Nitin Bal Chauhan, among the more talented of the younger lot, stood with his T-shirt designs. Samant Chauhan stuck to his repertoire, barely advancing his work, and totally ruining it with the end where he walked with Aftab Shivdasani and Dino Morea and forgot Sanjay Gupta.

The 'elder' statesmen were worse. Most can't do pret, and it showed, despite the theme of the week being wearable wear. JJ Valaya was his usual self, Rocky S did not impress either. Shantanu-Nikhil had some Greek thing going, but not even modern Greek men wear that kind of drapes. Wearable, we guess, was meant to be for humans, and not curtains! Narendra Kumar was his usual self too, and if the purpose of the week had been showcase the fact that Indian desingers could go beyond the wedding trousseaus and design for larger and everyday situations, well, that thought process did not seem to have percolated to most.

Even the finale was insipid at best, and not the ideal brand building exercise. Ashish Soni is never known for drama on the ramp, but the audience seemed to expect more from pret designers Rohit Gandhi and Rahul Khanna. But a malfuctioning ramp bulb had more attention from the audience, till it was swtiched off, but more before a few had vacated their seats.

So who did it please? There were no buyers. One firang buyer actually said their store only stocked women's wear and this was only a trip to 'look'. Even top Indian buyers stayed away. The stalls were bereft of designers for most of the while, and this after they had been given heavy discounts in participation fees.

Leading designers such as Suneet Varma, Manish Arora, Sabyasachi and Raghavendra Rathore were missing, though mercifully so were desginers such as Manav Gangvani.