Ningbo Textiles

Designers stole the limelight despite the presence of Bollywood stars at the inaugural Pearls Infrastructure Delhi Couture Week (PI-DCW) here and, sure enough, they made it a treat for fashionistas. While the likes of Rani Mukerji, Vidya Balan, Neha Dhupia, Soha Ali Khan, Riteish Deshmukh, Zayed Khan and Aftab Shivdasani chose to watch the shows, Jacqueline Fernandez, Anil Kapoor, Lara Dutta, Kangna Ranaut and Australian cricketer Brett Lee sashayed on the ramp. Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI), which has been behind two successful editions of Mumbai Couture Week, was the organiser of the six-day event at the Grand hotel, Vasant Kunj, that concluded Sunday. The Mumbai shows were dominated by film stars – the last edition looked as if it was more of a Bollywood extravaganza than a fashion week. But FDCI’s president Sunil Sethi promised that PI-DCW here would focus on generating business for the designers. “Fashion and Bollywood go hand-in-hand. But this time we wanted the clothes to be the real stars. It was a designers’ personal choice to bring in their celebrity friends as guests,” said Sethi. “So whether they wanted them to walk the ramp or sit in the front row was entirely their decision. And if you look at the scenario, the designers too have personally preferred to have their clothes as stars,” he added. Only 13 designers showcased their creativity during the extravaganza, which saw two shows each day. Abu Jani-Sandeep Khosla concluded the fashion week Sunday …