Guests checking into The Park Hotel on Sunday evening were a confused lot. They had many questions: why is the lobby filled with elegantly dressed people, why have so many celebrities turned up at the coffee shop on the same day at the same time and why has the open-air area of the bar been converted into a runway?
The answer: it was all to build classrooms for students at the Government Higher Secondary School in Pallikaranai. Organised by the Madras Midtown Round Table-42 (MMRT-42), in association with designer Vivek Karunakaran, the Mercedes Luxe Royale was an evening where fashion, art, music and dance came together for charity. The entire ground floor of the hotel was given over to the show, which began with independent singer Maalavika Manoj belting out a few numbers in her wonderful voice.
Vivek, an honorary tabler of MMRT-42, had conceptualised the fashion show, which meandered through four different zones of the hotel. “Let’s talk after the show, I’m full of butterflies,” he said, running off to make sure that all his models were ready. With two collections from his VK label — Spring Summer 2015 and The Regimental — going down the ramp in quick succession, his apprehension was understandable. Apart from this, a slew of celebrities from various walks of life also took part in a very fun and enjoyable ‘Walk of Pride’, showcasing bespoke clothing made for them by Vivek. This included Arvind Swamy, Abdul Qadir, Arti Kasturi, Aswathi, Karun Chandhok, Kyungsoo Kim, Latha Kumaraswami, Neville Billimoria, Parvathy Nair, Dr. Prithvi Mohandas, Radhika Sarathkumar, Ranvir Shah, Murali and Regeena Jeppiar, Sarath Kumar, Vikram Cotah, Suman Voora and Shriram Duvvuri. Some were nervous, but all of them enjoyed themselves, posing and blowing kisses to their friends in the crowd.
“I have had this concept in mind for a long time, but I didn’t want it to be just a show, I wanted it to be part of a cause. When I approached the MMRT-42 with the concept, they were happy to be a part of it to raise funds for their ‘Freedom through Education’ project,” said Vivek, visibly more relaxed once the show was done. “Besides, we need more out-of-the-box events in Chennai; this was a challenging format, and it wasn’t enough to just have a great concept in mind, but to execute it well. It took two months of planning, hard work and sleepless nights, but it was completely worth it to see the production come to life,” he said.
Dramatic music and lighting set the martial theme of the show, which also had contemporary dancers and acrobats performing in the different zones and an aerial dancer in the lobby. With several TV screens, it wasn’t hard to keep track of what was going on in the different venues. Vivek explained, “Since I was the creative producer, I had to bring in people who I thought would sync with the project and also those who were interested in being part of it. We simply gave the performers a brief, and asked them to work within the theme. So the contemporary dance and the acrobatics were both set to the same music as they had to be performed simultaneously.” The aerial dancer’s performance combined the lightness of the dance form with the heavy energy of war; set in the confined space of the lobby, it was powerful, and engaged the audience.
An art auction organised by Prakriti Foundation raised over Rs. 6 lakh, with generous donors opening up their wallets for the cause.
Vivek’s Spring Summer collection, inspired by the Papunya Tula ceremonial dot paintings of the Aborigines in Australia, featured light, airy fabrics like chanderi, cotton silk, linen and poplin with some gabardine thrown in for structuring the pieces. Palazzos, shorts, elaborate skirts, belted jackets and dhoti pants in tulip yellow, coral, electric blue and shades of grey, black and white, were accented with appliqué work and graphic prints to replicate the dots.
The highlight of the evening was the Regimental Collection, which was preceded by a marching band replete with a baton-twirling band leader, trumpets, bagpipes and drums. The inspiration for this, said Vivek, came from the rigid confines of military uniforms. “This entire collection was curated for the show. I loved using the jewel tones, moving from jade to ink to navy, gunmetal and finally to black and white,” he said. And in this collection, the zippers were not used just for fastening: they were used on armbands and cummerbunds and as accents on waistcoats (including the one which Vivek was sporting). Peak caps and berets festooned with medals and pins adorned the models’ heads along with a bright orange streak that accented the hair at their temple.
“The best part about this was that we know we’re going to see the results built up in the form of classrooms for the kids in the Pallikaranai school,” said Vivek, about the evening where opulence met charity. And while he’s yet to recover from this production, he says he won’t turn down an opportunity to be a part of something like this again.
The Hindu was the media partner for the event.
