Thaindian News

New Delhi, March 25 (IANS) After scrapping day one of the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week (WIFW) due to lack of a fire safety permit, the organisers — Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI) and the day one showcasing designers — have decided to extend the event by a day.
Now instead of March 28, the concluding day of the business-to-business event will be March 29 and all designers who were to do the first day shows, will showcase their collection in what is called as the “The Grand Finale Day” shows.

“We have come to the conclusion and decided that instead of accommodating the cancelled shows during other days, we extend the WIFW by one day. As we wanted to open our show with the cream designers and buyers too have pushed us to go for the extension,” FDCI president Sunil Sethi told IANS.

“All arrangements have been made and we have booked this place for another day. I know there is a lot of inconvenience caused due to this incident, but we need everyone’s support and I am promising you that the final day will be more extravagant and grand,” he added.

Earlier, the WIFW orgainsers had failed to get the no-objection certificate from the fire department of the city, resulting in the cancellation of all shows of the opening day of the fashion week March 24.

The unexpected situation created panic and chaos among the showcasing designers and dampened their spirits.

Though, the designers who were disappointed with the cancellation of day one shows were very happy with the decision and saluted the “spirit of fashion” and echoed that the show must go on.

“I was very disheartened yesterday (Wednesday) but after putting all things together we decided this was the best thing to do. All I can promise you is that the show will be fantastic and you all must come for it,” said designer Nida Mahmood, who was to open the WIFW with her show along with LittleShilpa.

According to Sethi, the final day will be turned into a “Special Monday” where all these designers will showcase their best. Sethi also said that all stalls at the exhibition area will also be open Monday to bring more business to the designers.

Sethi clarified that there will be no change in schedule and the grand finale by Rajesh Pratap Singh will take place March 28.

“Everything is the same. Even the shows for Monday are as per the schedule of the day one. So there is no change,” he added.

Though designer duo Swapan & Seema, whose show was also cancelled, said they won’t be able to participate on the extended day due to personal commitments, they are very happy that the decision was taken to benefit the designers.

Punnet Nanda of label Satya Paul, who had himself cancelled his show Wednesday has not yet confirmed his participation in Monday’s extravaganza.