A shopping spree you won't regret

Extravaganza

Orange sheets’, ‘night champagne’ and ‘green lantern’. Well, these are some quirky and interesting names for sarees!

As Chandni manned Buddha electrified’s stall, explaining the designs to a bevy of shoppers at ‘SHE’ – Travelista’s festival in the run-up to Women’s Day at Dilli Haat – her doting husband, Rohit Tuly, helped her around, keeping up the spirit of Women’s Day.  

While Chandni, essentially a jewellery designer, is fastidious about her choice of designs, it’s her investment banker husband who helps her christen her designs. “From Kejriwal-inspired auto motifs to owls, our designs carry a mix of these patterns. But what remains quintessential is the use of embellishments or jewellery as a pattern in Chandni’s works,” elaborates her husband. As Metrolife rambled around, ignoring the urge to indulge in a grand shopping spree, we came across dance performances, bamboo acts, acrobatics and Bihu by girl students from the NGO Shiksha Bharti.
With an atmosphere filled with the rhythms of northeastern music as the students performed to a song praising the Kaziranga National Park, we walked ahead to find our next stop. It was at ‘With Love’ stall that we halted next, as some snazzy concept eye cases caught our attention. A young and beaming face, Kanika Aggarwal owned the stall along with her mother. “While the Bollywood-inspired cushions  show an imprint of my ideas, my mother’s designs involve the technique of cutwork, stitching together different pieces, essentially throwing in a hint of what homemakers would relate to.”

Wearing flower tiaras, the girls strutted around, looking out for their favourite shopping stalls. We hit upon many, like Wearmates, who had a fascinating range of sparkling coloured shoes, Dirty Laundry – a customised boxer and shorts stall whose owners guaranteed a smile on the face of everyone who visited the stall, with their super one-liners on their products, and many more who managed to garner eyeball with their fantastic collections of knick-knacks, handicrafts, clothes, jewellery et al.
 Living up to the words of the organiser, Akshuna Bakshi, the festival ensured that, “It not only promotes women entrepreneurs and budding women designers, but also encourages women to express their concerns and raise their voice on issues close to their heart in an interactive and engaging way,” through activities such as quiz and ‘She Says’ corner.