I attended a fabulous
fashion event for the LIVA Protégé – Grand Finale
held at the St.Regis Hotel, earlier
last December.
LIVA Protégé is a fashion
property by the Aditya Birla Group. It is an annual, pan-India search for the brightest fashion designers in India,
and is open to final year fashion design students. It is a nationwide search that seeks to
recognize & reward the rising stars of the Indian fashion industry!
LIVA has
reached out to the budding fashion designers as they believe that they are the
future of fashion industry. It is an excellent platform for them to showcase
their talent at a national level and get mentored by some of the biggest names
in the industry. The
finale event was a fun-filled evening with generous doses of glitz, glam and of
course fabulous fashion, that brought together some of the country’s finest ensemble
of personalities from the Indian fashion fraternity, under one roof.
What is LIVA?
Liva is a high quality fabric by Aditya Birla Group. It is made of 100%
natural cellulose fibres, which gives better flow, fall and drape to garments.
LIVA was launched as the new age
fabric on 27th March, 2015 by Grasim Industries. It started as
a vision of the Aditya Birla Group that foresaw the limitations of cotton and
polyester, and identified the need for a suitable alternative, natural,
man-made fibre that would eventually take the textile world by storm.
The Liva Difference:
LIVA stands out from other fabrics
in the following aspects:
Fluidity: It falls & drapes well and adds to the fashion quotient of
any garment
Softness: It is soft and feels great on the skin
Sheen: Has a natural sheen
which gives it a chic appearance
Comfort: It has great breathability, absorption & provides comfort
due to its natural origin
STAGES of the competition: The participants were put through rigorous rounds of selection.
Campus Round: Principals nominated
the work of 4 best students from their respective colleges for the contest.
Entries were uploaded on the LIVA Protégé microsite.
Jury Selection: There were 6 zones
across the country - Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru &
Chennai. The top 5 students in each zone were selected by an esteemed panel of
judges.
Semi-Finals: These 5 students presented
the same mood-boards & sketches to the mentors. The mentors then selected
the Top 2 finalists from each zone.
These finalists had to prepare 5 outfits from LIVA fabric for the
finale, under the guidance of their respective mentors.
PRIZES – There were fabulous prizes for the winners with a chance to get the prize money and also have their designs would be sold online
1st Prize: An opportunity to work at ABOF.com’s in-house
design team + 5 LIVA commercial designs
OR Rs.2,00,000 + opportunity to showcase 5 LIVA commercial
designs
2nd Prize:Rs.1,00,000 + opportunity to showcase 3 LIVA commercial
designs for marketing through ABOF.com
3rd Prize:Rs.50,000
The LIVA Protégé Grand Finale
The LIVA Protégé Finale was a scintillating affair with a showcase of such
exceptional talent in the field of fashion designing by the young students. There
were 12 Finalists from 6 cities (Mumbai, Bengaluru, Ahmadabad, Kolkata, Chennai
& Delhi) showcasing 5 outfits themed around evening wear each designed by them using the LIVA Fabric with 60 models
walking the ramp. I was totally amazed by the some of the truly inspirational
designs and collections of these young students.
It was attend by prominent figures of
India’s fashion industry – including eminent designers, Bollywood
personalities, magazine editors and fashion bloggers.
Here are some of favorite designs from the LIVA Protégé runway.
The line up
of the judges was also rather impressive with Actress Soha Ali Khan,
Celebrity Fashion Designer Narendra Kumar, Editor Cosmopolitan Nandini Bhalla,
Fashion photographer Prasad Naik and Aditya Birla’s Daughter Ananya Birla.
The winners and
runner ups for Protégé '15:
Winner - RITURANA DEORI (Ahmedabad) - Mentor: Soham Dave,
1st Runner Up- NITIN GUPTA (Ahmedabad) - Mentor: Soham
Dave and 2nd Runner Up- SAGARIKA JOSHI (Bengaluru) - Mentor:
Manoviraj Khosla
I absolutely enjoyed being part of this
prestigious LIVA Protégé event
and walked away totally impressed by the innovative designs and immense
upcoming talent of these young fashion students. I think this is such a
powerful platform for young talent to shine and contribute to the dynamic
Indian fashion industry.