86 designers to showcase at LFW Winter fest

Mumbai: In its 13th year, Lakme Fashion Week has lined up 86 designers, including veterans Pallavi Jaikishan and Ritu Beri, from across the country. From big names such as Wendell Rodricks, Neeta Lulla, Anita Dongre, Krishna Mehta to young talents Pooja Kapoor, Atithi Gupta, Roma Narsinghani, Isabelle Mittal have been roped in to present exotic designs on the ramp at the upcoming edition of winter-festive 2012 starting Aug 3. "Buoyed by extremely positive industry feedback at LFW Summer-Resort 2012, we are now resolved to make the upcoming season even more successful with a formidable mix of relevant designers," Anjana Sharma, director-fashion at IMG Reliance, said in a statement. Other names finalised for the five-day event include, Archana Kochhar, Aartivijay Gupta, Aastha Bahl, Abhishek Dutta, Payal Khandwala, Pernia Qureshi, Anushka Khanna, Pia Pauro, Babita Malkani, Bhairavi Jaikishan, Priyadarshini Rao, Debarun Mukherjee, Deepika Govind, Gaurang Shah, Sanchita Ajjampur, Jatin Varma, Kapil & Mmonika Arora, Shivan & Narresh, and Shyamal & Bhumika Shodhan. Keeping the tradition of introducing new designers, this season LFW will launch Aniket Satam, Mehak Pruthi, Kanika Seth and Ankit Sharma, Asa Kazingmei, Richa Aggarwal, Astha Sethi and Sidharth Arora, Sneha Arora and Kavita Sharma. Another highlight of the event will be the grand finale where relatively young designers Kallol Datta and Pankaj & Nidhi will jointly present their creations. Also, in a continued endeavour to support and pay tribute to Indian textiles, this season will bring together Jaya Jaitly, Darshan Shah, Maximiliano Modesti, Rta Kapur Chishti and Rodricks for workshops, demonstrations and panel discussions. On Aug 5, the designers will showcase Indian weaves and crafts to extend their support to the initiative and help bring Indian textiles and crafts to the fore. IANS