HDIL lets its slip show; designers are paid to participate instead being charged

India's first couture week is tripping on its baby steps. Not only is the show earning the brickbats of designers and media alike for its shoddy show area and poor-quality organisation, a few designers have revealed that they were actually paid to present fashion shows here.

At fashion weeks around the world, whether ready-to-wear or menswear, designers have to pay a participation fee. Many are rejected on other grounds as well such as not enough experience, not enough selling points and the like. But to actually offer money for participation takes away from the credibility of the event and makes it an expensive but brilliant marketing gig for the sponsor company.

In this case, it is HDIL, a real estate development house better known for its page-three proprietor, Sunny Dewan Wadhawan and his wife Anu. The designers from Mumbai have been paid Rs 20 lakh to put up a show while designers from Delhi have been paid Rs 24 lakh each.

“I was paid Rs 24 lakh,” says Varun Bahl, one of fashion’s newest faces. “We were paid because they only gave us a structure for a stage and we had to take care of the models, choreographers, sets, hair and makeup personnel.” Bahl adds that they didn’t pay a participation fee at all and “for the first three years, this seems to be the structure”.

The HDIL sponsored India Couture Week is taking place in Mumbai from September 16 to September 21. It has some of India’s biggest designers showing their excessive and elaborate designs and the cost of an average outfit is Rs 3 lakh. Some of the designers invited are Tarun Tahiliani, JJ Valaya, Pallavi Jaikishen, Manish Malhotra, Rohit Bal, Suneet Varma and Ritu Kumar.

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