There's a businesslike air at the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week that seemed to be missing from the just-concluded Lakme Fashion Show at Mumbai.

"It's only natural for that to happen," said an industry insider who has attended both the events.

"Being Mumbai, there was bound to be an abundance of Bollywood - on the ramp and in the audience. But that does not make for a good atmosphere to do business in," he added.

Even though it's quite apparent that a lot of business is being conducted at the ongoing event everyone's keeping his card close to the chest. Both buyers and the Fashion Design Council of India that has organised the event cite confidentiality clauses to keep mum.

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The amazed Dutchman

Wolter Dommers, the event manager of the fashion week, could well and truly be called the amazed Dutchman.

"Amazing, amazing," is what this Dutch-born Britain-based expert is constantly telling people who ask him how the event is going.

"The talent that exists in this country is quite amazing. It's amazing how perfectly everyone has jelled together," he maintains.

Dommers, who has been associated with the London Fashion Week for two decades, has helped to turn it around into a world-class event. He hopes to do the same for the Delhi event.

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Media blues


It's only natural that everyone at a fashion week should dress to kill - but that has led to at least one hilarious incident that two young media women won't forget for a long time. Let's call them A and B.

A, a reporter for a TV news channel, hesitantly approached B - who was clad in knee-length jeans and boots - for a sound byte. Their conversation went like this:

A: Excuse me, but who all are you modelling for?

B named a TV news channel.

A: Excuse me, you are modelling for a channel?

B: No, I work there.

But then, all ended well when B explained that she rarely anchored for her channel - and hence the confusion!

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Hotel lobby or TV studio?

Visitors to The Grand, where the fashion week is being held, could be forgiven for thinking they have entered a sprawling TV studio when they walk into the hotel's lobby.

There are TV cameras in every nook and corner as reporters furiously attempt to get sound bytes from models, designers, celebrities and any mover and shaker they can latch on to.

And in keeping with the spirit of bonhomie at the event, the TV crews, which normally are a cacophonic lot, are giving each other space. Happily, there is very little of the shouting that one normally hears from them.