NextGen ramp stars

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Akansha Arora started her own brand ‘Raas’ after her postgraduate degree in fashion designing and owns two couture stores in the city. Mini Shangle has been working on interesting prêt designs based on lounge and high-street fashion over the last year and half.

About 30 young and vivacious designers like them will soon get a chance to present their collections along with established names on a novel platform, India Runway Week (IRW), to be held in the capital towards end of August.
“The established fashion weeks by Lakme and Wills have a certain set of famous designers who display their designs on a regular basis. But we have so many young and creative designers who are looking for a platform to showcase their styles and reach out to their target audience. It was time to create a fashion event for them,” says Avinash Pathania, founder and director, Indian Federation for Fashion Development, the body that is hosting India Runway Week.
The event will feature the best of traditional and contemporary fashion, textiles and accessories from designers all over India. Apart from the newbies, it will also feature the works of Rajdeep Ranawat, Amit Talwar, Sagar Mehra, Digvijay Singh and Rakesh Agarwal.
Talking about the importance of such an event, designer Rajdeep Ranawat puts forth, “Annually close to 10,000 students graduate from fashion schools and work very hard to create their own fashion lines. But hardly get scope to showcase their talent. Now with the Runway Week, they will get a chance to strike big. Apart from presenting my work, I would love to mentor them, talk about marketing tactics and discuss my experience as a designer.”
Mini Shangle is looking forward to her debut on ramp with the IRW. She is set to present retro fashion in a contemporary form, inspired by yesteryear diva Rekha. “My collection is for the young and bold. It is a great way to connect with the target audience,” she says.
Akansha would be displaying stitched saris with pants, assymetrical jackets with dhoti style bottoms and lehengas. “The bigger platforms like WIFW and LFW have a strict format and budget for designers. But at IRW, it is more flexible and we have been given creative liberties,” she informs.