Fashion showcase at Rongali Bihu celebration in Dubai

The designers who showcased their creations included Payal Oshan Goswami, Chin Moyee Pujari and Kunal Kaushik.

There were no professional models to showcase the creations of some of the best designers from the northeast region of India. Yet, FNDC’s show during UAE Assam Society’s Rongali Bihu celebration in Dubai last Friday was a rousing success.

“We came to know that the Bihu orgainsers in Dubai hosted a fashion show last year. So we decided to come here with our group of fashion designers, choreographers and make-up artists. We are so grateful to the people living here that volunteered to walk the ramp and help us stage a beautiful show,” said Medha Saikia, the founding president of FNDC, a prominent registered society for fashion designers in Assam.

“The idea of opening this society was to give a platform to the aspiring models and designers from the northeast. In fact it was us that launched the career of Guwahati-born Indian model and Bollywood actress Monikangana Dutta. She was our discovery!”

FNDC’s first overseas project was in Bangkok for Indo-Thai Chamber of Commerce and Indian embassy in April, 2014. “They loved our show. Then they invited us again early this year to participate in the Festival of India show in Thailand. They wanted us to do the opening ceremony.

“But we told them that we would do it only if we were allowed to showcase Assamese culture and fashion. They agreed. So we took a team of traditional dancers, models and fashion designers. It was a great show. That’s how the Dubai Bihu organisers came to know about us and they invited us.

“We didn’t have our own models here and the organisers also wanted real people to walk the ramp. You know almost all the people who participated in the show have day jobs here; one of them is even a flight attendant for a leading airlines and she landed in Dubai hours before the show was to begin.

“So we didn’t get much time to rehearse yet everything fell into place when the show started. Yes, they are not professionals, but they pulled it off quite magnificently,” Saikia said.

The designers who showcased their creations were Payal Oshan Goswami (fusion round), Chin Moyee Pujari (mainstream round), Kunal Kaushik (wovel and mystery round), Mehzabin Ershad (Mishing fusion round), Arita Kashyap (tribal Khasi round) and Kongana Kuwar (Manipuri-Assamese round).  

rituraj@khaleejtimes.com