Abhi Rahul at Lakme Fashion Week winter 2010

The AbhiRahul label is the collaboration of two designer - Abhi and Rahul! They usually focus on more western-style oufits (as seen earlier on this year at Wills India Fashion Week with their collection of unusual and edgy dresses click here to check them out). At Lakme Fashion Week for the winter 2010 season however they went traditional with saris and lehngas in some very feminine shades of pink and red:

Lots of heavy embroidery in sight in the outfits above, but for more subtle look the collection included these much lighter options:

Which do you prefer, the heavily embroidered looks or the lighter outfits?

To view more photos from all the designers at Lakme Fashion Week, visit the Lakme Fashion Week website

Krishna Mehta at Lakme Fashion Week winter 2010

Here's the collection designer Krishna Mehta showcased at the Winter 2010 Lakme Fashion Week, which took place in India last week.
To view more photos from all the designers at Lakme Fashion Week, make sure you visit the official Lakme Fashion Week website.

Most of the pieces in the collection had jacket-style tops:

Even the saris had matching jackets. A very practical idea? I know I always struggle with what to wear over my asian outfits in the unpredictable UK weather. There's also the idea that you can take the jackets and wear them with other outfits, over a pair of jeans perhaps? What do you think?

It was just all about the jackets, they also had these two long-flowing style outfits which are oh-so-fashionable at the moment. I'm not sure the bottom of the yellow outfit works for me, I don't think the layering looks quite right with the ruffles on the bottom of the skirt.

The Satya Paul "Bridal Tarot Line" at Winter 2010 Lakme Fashion Week

Another of the big name designers who showcased a collection at the Winter 2010 Lakme Fashion Week in India was Satya Paul. I've previously posted photos of the Satya Paul "Maya" collection of saris and thought they looked beautiful, so not surprisingly I like most of outfits in this latest collection!

This collection is called the "Bridal Tarot Line" because it's inspired by tarot symbols like Empress, Lovers, Wands and Chariots - I personally have never really been into tarot cards so don't quite see the link but if you can see the tarot in these gorgeous outfits leave a comment and let me know!





I really like these three green outfits, I've always been a fan of this green and cream colour combination and for bridalwear it's a colour combo which I've not seen many real brides wearing.

Here we have a bit of bollywood on the catwalk in the form of actress Shruti Haasan - don't be surprised if you don't recognise her...she's pretty new and I wouldn't have known it was her if I hadn't read it somewhere!



The rest of the collection was a step away from bridalwear and saris with these two dresses and a chic-looking jumpsuit.

You can view more from this collection and even a video from the catwalk at the Lakme Fashion Week website.

Manish Malhotra catwalk collection at Winter 2010 Lakme Fashion Week

Over the past week it's all been about London Fashion Week, but on the other side of the world another event was taking place also with the initials "LFW". The Lakme Fashion Week in India held host to some top designers and I'm going to be posting pics from some of the shows, starting off with celebrity favourite Manish Malhotra.
Photo credits go to the official Lakme Fashion Week website

There's something glamorous about these lehngas/skirt suits despite the fact that there's hardly any embroidery on them. I'm really loving the blue, gold and red.

What do you think of this harem-pants outfit? Maybe it's just me but it reminds me of retro Bollywood for some reason!

What do you think of this collection? Do you have a favourite?

KZ Entertainment publishes their list of Most Beautiful South Asian Female Models in UK

Event management company KZ Entertainment recently published a list of their "Most Beautiful South Asian Female Models in the UK" along with a list of their top 10 "Most Handsome South Asian Male Models in the UK".

The number one female model, picked by "an Independent panel of judges in the UK Asian Media Industry", was Hammasa Kohistani who doesn't really have a South Asian background (she was born in Uzbekistan and raised in Afghanistan) but seeing as she's a regular in the brit-asian fashion scene I suppose that's why she was included!

Here's a photo of Hammasa (in the red) at this year's Birmingham Asiana Wedding show with number 6 in the list Sharina Madlani:You can view the full list of female winners here

They also published a list of their "10 most handsome south asian male models in the UK" which included these 3 models, shown here modelling Ziggi Studio designs at the 2010 Birmingham Asiana Wedding Show:
(from left to right - Mun Dhariwal, Naresh K and Eshaan Akhtar)

View the full list of male winners here

I'm not sure how these models were chosen for both of these lists, although the KZ Entertainment website did state "The selection process is not based on how many projects you have done but other crucial factors".

Who are your favourite male and female asian models and why? leave a comment :)

Maria B and Yousuf Bashir Qureshi Charity Fashion Show in Manchester

Calling all Pakistani Designer fans in the North West! The International Foundation For Mother & Child (IFMCH) have teamed up with Manchester's Imani Studio to host an exclusive charity fashion show in aid of the flood victims of Pakistan. The show will be taking place at Nawab Banqueting Hall on Friday 24th September.

The fashion show will feature collections by two top Pakistani designers: Maria B and Yousuf Bashir Qureshi

Tickets for this event are available from Imani Studio via Sultan Asi on 07734982915 or through Dr Salim Khan from the IFMCH on 07739489598

For a limited time only! Free access to Asiana Magazine, Asiana Wedding and Asiana Wedding International

In March this year, Asiana Magazine ran a tester offering a free online copy of their Spring 2010 magazine, I'm not sure how successful their test was (and you can read the pros and cons of the online version of the mag here) but with the launch of their new Asiana.tv site they're offering online versions of their latest magazines again!

All you have to do is pop along to Asiana.TV, register your details and you will be able to access for free the following:
- Asiana Summer 2010
- Asiana Wedding Autumn 2010
- Asiana Wedding International Volume 4 Issue 2

I'm not sure how long these mags will be available for, so have a look while you can! Personally I was most interested in seeing the international version of Asiana Wedding, as that's not something people in the UK usually have access to.

Sadly, even though there's great content in the online mags, there isn't much else to the Asiana.tv site at the moment. I know for a fact that the Asiana team are working very hard to get the site up and running and I hope to see some more content on there soon!

For anyone that's interested, I ran a poll asking if people would still buy Asiana Magazine once the new portal was up and running. So far, 56% of people said yes, they would still buy the magazine even if they could access the same content online. I suppose there's a lot to be said for flipping through magazine pages compared to staring at a computer screen!

New make-up brand is looking for testers in the UK

A new make-up brand which is launching in the UK is looking for testers and you could be one of them!

Rosena Dawar Cosmetics are looking for 100 British Asian women, with skin tones ranging from the fair to the dark and all shades in between, to try out their products and give honest feedback on ease of use, colour match and longevity.

If you're a make-up fan and want to be one of the first people to try out this new brand, get in touch with Rosena by the 10th October 2010, on 07500379368 or via email on rosenadawar@yahoo.com

A fundraising fashion event full of big names. The Floods Disaster Charity Gala at Troxy London

The Floods Disaster Charity Gala will be taking place later on this month on the 22nd September at Troxy in London, in support of the DEC Pakistan Flood appeal. Considering the event was only dreamed up one month ago, it has an impresseive line-up including:

Gala Hosted By: Murtz & Gulzaeb
Fashion Show Choreographed By: Caramel Model Management
Celebrity Fashion Show Supported By: Ziggi Studio
Celebrity Fashion Hosted by: Nihal Radio1, Jags Klimax Celebrity hypnotist / magician: Ravi Maya
Celebrity DJ's: Nihal Radio1, Jags Klimax, Senator, Krash Rugrat, Diamond Cut
Live PA's: Raghav, Khiza & Ally Hash, Bonafide & Menis

Tickets are available to buy online from Voodoo Entertainment and Chilli Tickets at the following prices:
- Standard Ticket: £15
- Dinner Ticket £35 (3 Course Meal & Party)
- Vip Tables (for 10 people) : £300 (3 Course Meal & Party)

If I lived anywhere near London, I'd definitely be attending, but if like me it's a little too far to travel, you can still make a donation direct to the DEC Appeal via this link.
I should hopefully be getting access to the photos from this event to share with asian fashion blog readers so look out for those soon!

Asiana.tv - can the successful magazine become the world's biggest asian portal?

Next week sees the launch of Asiana Magazine's new online portal Asiana.tv, Asiana have arguably already conquered the magazine market, but nowadays a stand-alone magazine is no longer adequate and readers want online content too!

Anyone who's ever searched for "asiana" on the internet will of course have come across the existing Asiana Magazine website, the rarely updated asianamag.com. There was a time when that site made for interesting reading, they had active user forums and an up-to-date directory, but something obviously went wrong there and now it seems they've opted for a brand new start with Asiana.tv.

Up and coming asian fashion site AsianFashionOnline.Net has already written a pre-launch review of asiana.tv which wasn't very complimentary.

I personally can't wait to see what they have in store, but I do wonder if they'll be able to keep up with the constant creation of fresh website content, after all it's one thing to publish a quarterly magazine and quite something else to keep a website updated regularly enough for people to come back!

I'm also raising my eyebrows a little at their tagline of "the world's biggest asian portal". If they tried to run an advert making this claim I'm sure they'd get a few complaints/reports to the advertising standards agency because how can they substantiate this? How are they measuring "biggest"? And then there's the word "asian" ok so British Asians generally tend to call themselves "asian" but in other parts of the world the word asian is also used to describe people from Eastern Asian countries such as China and Japan. With the vast populations of these countries surely a site aimed at those asians would be the "biggest"??

I'm mostly looking forward to seeing their fashion coverage and to see who their expert bloggers are, especially as I was asked to blog for them, but still haven't heard anything back from them 4 days before launch!!

Here's my question to you, if Asiana.tv is all the it promises to be, will you still go out and buy the magazine?

The HSY Ladieswear collection at the 2010 Pakistan Fashion Extravaganza

Here's the final post from The 2010 Pakistan Fashion Extravaganza, which took place in London earlier this year. Did I save the best for last? You can decide - take a look at the black and gold HSY Ladieswear collection:




What do you think about the sheer tops on these two outfits above? I wonder if HSY also provide the gold bras worn by the models underneath?!





Here's the man himself, Hassan Sheheryar Yasin, with two of the models:

A very big thanks to photographer Shahid Malik, who very kindly gave me permission to post these photos.