6 Months = 1 Night at FNO

Somewhere between the A/W shows in Paris, Editors from 16 Vogue countries met over a hush-hush breakfast and discussed the merits of repeating Fashions Night Out over countless cups of coffee and very little food. As each of us shared our thoughts, it became so clear that Fashion’s Night Out had grown much bigger than a one-off event. All of us agreed to agree that there would be an encore.
That was in March, and as I submit this blog, I am hours away from the main event. Tomorrow night, 6 months of meetings, planning, agreeing, disagreeing, partnering and hoping will culminate over a grand finale at the DLF Emporio Mall, from 6pm to midnight.
Thought this was the best time to share with you the inside stories on all that will be revealed tomorrow night.
Some decisions were easy to make: Manish and Rajesh were both on my wish-list to design the Vogue FNO T-shirts. Thankfully I didn’t have to choose as both matched my enthusiasm with theirs and partnered with us right away. The not so glamorous task of taking this idea and turning it into a stylish reality was entrusted to art editor Mihir Shah who spent many hours and after hours perfecting the production and design. Deliciously cool and unique, each one is a steal for Rs. 500. And when you remember that their sales proceeds will go to Habitat For Humanity ‘s Women’s India Builds initiative, it’s easy to reach out and buy a few. I should know. At last count I was 20 down!

Some decisions weren’t: That the evening would take the shape of a late night shopping experience was a given. That every partnering brand ( all 65 +) had to participate in the luxury lucky draw and sponsor a gift worth Rs. 50000 was mandatory. That DLF Emporio would play hosts for the evening was unarguable. What took weeks and weeks of discussions to get around to were the highlights for the evening. We were shopping for a few cool ideas, a few big draws that could make FNO bigger, better and busier than year 1.
It all started with a shoe: I recall gushing and wowing over the extra big shoe designed by Jonathan Saunders last year for London’s FNO. The dream was to create the extra long sari and I needed the support of a designer who’d be as creatively charged and excited over this as I was. The only name that came to my mind was Suneet Varma and when I saw his eyes light up and smile widen as I took him through the idea, I knew right away that this was going to be an extra special collaboration! Tomorrow, when you see this installation (which has been declared by Limca Book of Records as the world’s longest embroidered sari) know that it’s a labour of man-hours, resources and above all love!

A store was born: When fashion director Anaita popped up the idea of the pop up store over lunch, it sounded adorable. But impossible to execute. Between our day jobs (the magazine, lest you have forgotten), fashion weeks, twenty odd shoots, events, it looked like this would be nothing more than a cool idea. However, the fashion team took it upon them to get some of the finest contemporary designers into creating a line of limited edition goodies for sale, just for that night at our very own pop up store. Bags, mugs, stoles, tunics, shoes and t-shirts - I predict the Vogue Loves store is going to be one of the best ideas of the evening. Hope I can get to the Rahul Mishra tunic and Sanchita Ajjampur shoes before they are sold out!

Bag ladies: That was our working title till it was re-christened Vogue Steals. A call from features director Bandana and 70 plus of our celebrity lady friends generously donated gently used designer bags which I know, are going to fly off the racks for a fraction of their original price. A Gucci for 10,000? Proceeds going to charity? Looking good never felt this good!

And Tarun provides the icing: Taking on a fashion show in a mall, amidst thousands of manic shoppers featuring real girls in place of models is not a task for the faint-hearted. Which is why, it had to and could only be Tarun Tahiliani who could breathe this to life. He loved that there would be real girls, he was sold on doing this not once, but twice in the same evening using the entrance to his store as a ramp(8pm and 10pm). He, along with fashion editor Edward handpicked the girls from 150 plus entries (of which 20 were men!)and the show is going to be as much a surprise for me as it will be for you. Will the makeover be magical? Tomorrow will tell.

This is just the beginning: In addition to all the above experiences the best of Indian and international luxury brand are all geared to seduce the shopper in you. My advice: No use fighting the temptation. Whether you walk away with a tee or the seasons most coveted bag or just come in to get a glimpse of our September cover-girl Bipasha Basu and Jacqueline Fernandes make it a fun night out!I could go on but Delhi awaits. See you at FNO!