Will anyone be in Mumbai, India this April or October? If so, be sure to check out Indian Fashion Week. According to a release hot off the fashion presses:

Mumbai (March 20, 2008) – Lakmé Fashion Week, which has placed Mumbai on the fashion map of the world, today, announced this year’s line up of talented designers for its Fall/Winter Season ’08. At an event held at Mumbai’s Taj President, Lakmé’s Anil Chopra and IMG’s Tim Wright & Vikram Raizada revealed names of 57 designers and 12 sponsors for this season. This year’s Lakme Fashion Week will commence on 29th March 2008 and go on till 2nd April 2008 at Mumbai’s National Center of Performing Arts (NCPA).

57 designers from across the country will participate in the event. With an exciting line – up of talented designers, the event will make a major impact on the Indian fashion scene. This season, will also see renowned designer Wendell Rodricks presenting the ‘Lakme Grand Finale’ show, at Lakmé Fashion Week.

Also announced were this season’s sponsors & partners for the event. Gitanjali, Samsonite, Allen Solly, AZA, Park Avenue, Chivas, Westside, Peroni, DHL, NCPA and TAJ President and Tag Media Network will be sharing the stage with Lakme & Lux to integrate India into the global fashion world.

Fashion is the most culturally potent force that binds everyone. Renowned buyers and journalists from around the world, including a contingent of 19 of the world’s most envied fashion stalwarts, will be present at the premier fashion extravaganza of India. Making their presence felt at this fashion business extravaganza will be the likes of New York based Elsye Kroll of Coterie, Albert Morris of Browns, Pamela & Lydia Pearson and Tiziana Cardini of La Rinascente. Suzy Menkes – Fashion editor International Herald Tribune, an officer of the British Empire and a chevalier of the Legion of Honor –France, would be visiting Lakme Fashion Week along with Carole Sabas of Vogue France amongst others.

Lakmé Fashion Week is known for being a great launch pad for emerging designers and continues to define the future of fashion. This is apparent by the fact that 50% of last season’s Emerging designers have moved on to becoming this season’s Established designers.

This season’s success stories include GenNext designers such as Kallol Datta and Rimzim Dadu who have graduated to Emerging Designers. Anuj Sharma, Abdul Halder, Nachiket Barve, Raakesh Agarwal, Vineet Bahl, Urvashi Kaur and Ruchi Mehta have stepped up from being Emerging designers to Regular designers.

Lakme Fashion Week’s continued initiative to send Indian designers abroad to participate in foreign fashion weeks, has also attracted a lot of international interest in our designers.

Lakme Fashion Week, is also pleased to announce dates for the following season (Spring/Summer 2009). This will be held from 20^th to 24^th October 2008, at NCPA.

Anil Chopra, Vice President, Lakmé Unilever said, “Lakmé’s legacy of beauty and fashion continues with yet another trendsetting season of Lakmé Fashion Week. What makes this season extremely interesting is the inclusion of retail in our focus. We plan to make fashion more accessible – we are yet again defining the future of fashion. Also, the world is sitting up and taking notice of us, with a fabulous international contingent lined up for this season. We have diligently been trying to integrate Indian fashion in the global world and I’m glad to announce that our hard work is paying off with a host of international buyers, media and people associated with the international fashion world !” he added.

Tim Wright, Managing Director, IMG said “Lakmé Fashion Week is supported by various sponsors who will be intensely associated with the event. Sponsors like Gitanjali, Allen Solly, Aza, Chivas, Peroni. We have new support in the form of retail superstar Westside and prestigious giants such as Park Avenue and DHL. NCPA and Taj President continue to be venue and hospitality partners. Our sponsors are our biggest support and we aim to deliver on our part of the promise as well.”

Vikram Raizada, Head of Fashion, IMG, adds, “IMG has always believed in the philosophy of integrating India into the global fashion world. Indian fashion is soon to be the world’s darling with international buyers like New York based Coterie, Browns, Tiziana Cardini and many others flocking to India’s most talked about fashion event – Lakmé Fashion Week!

And it doesn’t end there - Lakmé Fashion Week Fall Winter 08 provides a significant platform for modeling talent as IMG Models – IMG’s international model scouting agency comes calling for selecting the next international super model to be selected from India!.”

About Lakmé Fashion Week:

Lakmé Fashion Week (LFW) is a joint initiative by Lakmé and IMG, the global leader in fashion weeks and event production. LFW has been conceived and created with a vision to “Integrate India into the global fashion world and redefine the future of fashion”. LFW will be organized twice every year. The inaugural Fall/Winter Week was held from March 27^th to 31^{st in} 2006, at the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA), Mumbai and the next Lakmé Fashion Week Fall/Winter season will be held from March 29^th to April 2^nd, 2008 also in Mumbai.

New, successful initiatives like ‘Emerging Designer Category’ and ‘GenNext’ were unveiled for the first time in India at the inaugural LFW 2006 with an aim to provide a platform for promising young talent. Both Lakmé and IMG have been pivotal to the success of the Lakmé India Fashion Week over the previous seasons.

For more info, check out the official site.

I would love to go in October…let’s see if I can fanagle a trip from the hubby to visit a new and exotic place–and maybe have to convince him that since I will be going as a stylist..it will be a business write off! Then again, I could play the romantic get-away angle…I would probably have much more luck with that one….

Have a strictly stylish day!