MANDEEP NAGI AND KRANTI AT LAKME FASHION WEEK

Mumbai, January 25, 2017: A highlight of this year’s Lakme Fashion Week will be the special evening event on February 2 when Mandeep Nagi, Design Director of Shades of India, show cases her summer collection with girls from Kranti modelling the clothes. Kranti, the Mumbai based NGO, has won international recognition for rehabilitating girls from the red light area. They will tell their stories while demonstrating their pride and independence in the exquisite clothes from Mandeep’s Bagh collection.

The idea for the event came from Gautam Vazirani, Fashion Curator with IMG Reliance for Lakme Fashion. He has long been an admirer of Kranti and of its Director Robin Chaurasia. He wanted Lakme this year to include a spectacular event that linked social responsibility with fashion. He turned to Neeraj Gaba, popularly known as “Mr. Gaba” of India’s Next Top Model, a well-known television personality to script and direct the show.

Mandeep has made a point of not using professional models in her photoshoots. For her highly successful Cinnamon collection, she chose Kamla as her model. In normal life Kamla – tall, beautiful and with naturally superb poise – works as a house help. Mandeep wanted to demonstrate that even girls from the most modest backgrounds can prove their independence and hold their heads high. She followed the same path with her recent Nazraana collection where the clothes – inspired by the courtly life of old Lucknow – are again modelled by a girl from an unprivileged background.

For Gautam, Mandeep was thus a natural choice for his project. The blend of elegance and bohemianism in her style and her unconventional choices in showcasing her apparel made for a perfect partnership.
The Bagh spring and summer collection draws on similar themes that inspired Awadh and Nazraana with echoes of courtly life combined with a stylish bohemianism. Fabrics are fine hand woven cottons, silks and precious metallic weaves. A major feature is the revival of vintage lace reflecting the western influence on dress in Lucknow in days of old. Colours evoke the warmth of spring, of early flowers in blossom. White, orchid tint, haze, almond, rose pink, are used with soft gold and silver metallic.

Silhouettes are inspired by traditional kurtas and pajamas and by re-interpreting saris with a bohemian look. In all the styles, the layering of fabrics, textures and colours brings surprise.
As Design Director of Shades of India, Mandeep has won national and international recognition for her creativity and innovation in both Home textiles and Apparels. She and Shades of India have gathered design awards for Home in India, Paris and New York. She has increasingly carried her work into textiles for Interiors. Her own apartment – for which she created the interiors – is currently showcased on the cover of the newly revived Living Etc magazine.

Shades of India has its own flagship store in the Meharchand market in Delhi – a lifestyle shop showing both Apparel, Accessories and Home. It also has outlets in most of the major metropoles. It has just launched a new Home collection in the US under the brand name ‘Neem’ which has already won accolades in the US.