Celebrating India's ethnic roots, the second season of the five-day Kolkata Fashion Week would begin here next month with a unique theme of 'Earth Couture'.

"We are trying to put up a very big show this time. We will have more than 40 designers, including reputed and new ones. It will be a five-day event with 36 shows," Yudhajit Dutta, Managing Director of Mindscapes Maestros, orgainsers of the Kolkata Fashion Week (KFW) told reporters here on Thursday.

The fashion extravaganza would begin from September 9. The opening show would be hosted by Ritu Kumar, while Manish Malhotra will mark the grand finale, Dutta said.

Reputed designers like Wendell Rodricks, Narendra Kumar, Mona Pali, Dev R Nil, Zubair Kirmani, Satya Paul, Bibi Russell, Abhishek Dutta, among others have confirmed their participation for the event.

"We will put up a lot of new things at KFW. We have introduced a new concept of having a buyers' committee which no other fashion week has in India," Dutta said.

They would also organise a nation-wide model hunt, where 20 contestants would be shortlisted, who would also get the opportunity participate at the KFW.

Being marketed as a 'fashion week with a cause', KFW will bring rural Bengal weavers to the fore with

celebrity models walking down the ramp to revive traditional Bengal designs.

"The year 2009 has been declared as 'The International Year of Natural Fibre' by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation. And so we are going to promote the rural weavers in a big way," he said.

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