Hindustan Times
Who really is a star?
Lakme Fashion Week (LFW) is on but with a difference this time. It wears a new look now with the organizers opting to a summer/resortwear theme as opposed to a season based theme.
When the event got kicked off on Friday I was wondering whether people have finally got themselves over with their fancy for film stars on the fashion runway. Few of the designers tried to bring in stars such as Rocky S in the company of Bipasha Basu and Babita M with Harman Baweja and Pria Kataria Puri brought in start up star Mugda Godse. All these stars were faced with lukewarm response from the audience that almost left them red faced.
If you are a star and if you are appearing on a platform such as fashion week runway, it is but natural that you expect a certain level of applause from the audience. In all the cases mentioned above, the crowd just sat there gaping at them.
This brings back the old question. Do designers really need film stars on the runway to make an impact in the audience? I don’t think so. I think it is a mere gimmick opted by them to get into the media limelight. To a large extend they succeed too. They pay some of these actors to get on to the runway. Some come because of their relationship with the designers. In either way, the designer certainly expect the actor to make an impact either in the form of a thunderous applause that he/she can easily absorb and think his/her collection was a hit or get the same actor through the lens of hungry photographers and see them next morning in the newspapers with their name tagging along in the captions.
While today the actors failed to make the desired impact among the audience, I am not sure the result will be the same when I open the newspapers tomorrow morning. I am pretty much sure that photographs of these actors will be displayed well above the deserving designers who have actually put in their best to make their collections.
Whom should the blame really do to then? Should it be the designer who make crappy clothes and then try and get the attention from the media by way of using these celebrities or the media itself who is ignorant enough to publish these guys in blown up formats?
I think the latter should get the full blame for it. I say this because if the media doesn’t give a damn to what designers choose to come out with on the runway other than their collections, designers will no longer spend their money or energy to bring these people on the runway. I am pretty much sure that they do it with such confidence that they know that this formula will work successfully.
While our fashion industry has evolved over the years with some of our designers showing exemplary skills in the world of fashion designing, fashion journalism still is in its nascent stages, almost where it was more than a couple of decades ago. I think it’s about time that media and the editors that control it realize that what needs to be done is do discourage such trivial acts from coming in print and encourage those who truly deserve it. Perhaps then it will start looking like a wholesome, meaningful affair.
(7 votes, average: 4.14 out of 5)
Loading ...
