INDIA FASHION WEEK opened with an explosion of colour and feathers yesterday as Manish Arora, the internationally acclaimed designer, sent models down the catwalk wearing exotic bird headdresses and bird-themed clothes. He was one of 60 designers set to show their spring-summer 2007 collections during the five-day event, which is aimed at increasing their profile at home and abroad.

The audience laughed and exclaimed in amazement as models in Arora’s show appeared wearing quirky chicken hats with kaleidoscopically patterned, gathered ankle-skirts, feathered tunics and dresses adorned with flowers, animals and birds. “The collection is inspired by a paradise forest,” explained Arora, who is the biggest-selling designer in India and dresses most of the Bollywood stars. While his designs still reflected his use of the brazen colours and fine craftsmanship of Bollywood costumes, the kitsch element was more restrained than in previous collections. The autumn-winter 2006 collection that he showed at London Fashion Week included dirndl skirts embroidered with Christmas scenes, Tube signs written in Hindi script and landmarks such as Big Ben. These witty flourishes reflected the increasing multiculturalism of London Fashion Week, where Arora will be showing this collection in September.

More than 70 international buyers from department stores such as Galeries Lafayette were expected to attend the event in Delhi, and among the fashion press in the front row for Arora’s show was Isabella Blow, the Fashion Director of Tatler magazine. Wearing an Alexander McQueen bird hat, Blow provided an answer to whether anyone would actually wear a bird on their head. “India is a huge country with huge potential,” she said. The fashion industry in India, estimated to be worth about £25 million, may be small by global standards but it is growing at about 11 per cent a year, boosted by Indian designers who are moving into the ready-to-wear market.

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