New Delhi-based fashion designer Manish Arora summed it up succinctly: "It's great to be an Indian right now. And I can tell you, Indians have a lot of money."
With the credit crunch and threatened recession in the US and Europe, luxury fashion houses courting new customers in the boom nations of China and India may find that Asian designers are not willing to be outmaneuvered.
Arora, when he became the first Indian to show in ready-to-wear week in Paris last season, made it clear this was no Indian summer: He intended to make it all year round in the world's fashion capital.
PHOTO: AFP
This weekend, as the shows for next autumn-winter got under way, he was joined by fellow countryman Rajesh Pratap Singh from Rajasthan, who developed his label in Italy but has now decided to show here.
"I have a lot of friends in Paris, my clothes are already sold here. It was only natural," he said.
Both events created a buzz, indicating the likelihood that they will carve out more prominent spots in the calendar in future.
Arora was inspired by warrior women, drawing on costume through the ages and cultures from gladiators, medieval knights in shining armor and samurai to futuristic gear straight out of Star Wars.
His models wore fearsome face masks, all glinting sharp points, with gauntlets to the elbow and thigh-high boots.
Their lurex-spangled chainmail tunics and togas had 1980s power-dressing padded shoulders and double cap-sleeves, but exquisitely embroidered with witty designs by Japanese avant-garde artist Kelichi Tanami or even Walt Disney cartoons in Arora's signature garish fluorescent palette.
Singh's offerings were lower key, but also showcased the skills of needlework on the subcontinent. Dresses hugged the body with row upon row of ultra fine pintucks.
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS