This year's Asiana Bridal Show took place at their usual venue, the Rivebank Plaza in London, on the 30th January.
I made the trip from Manchester to London just for the show and I have to say it was worth it! There's so much to say about the event, from some of the lesser known fashion exhibitors I met, to the lack of asian models on the "enchanted forest" catwalk.
I'll be posting my full reviews of each fashion show designer very soon, but here's a first look/preview from the catwalk, starting with my two favourites - Ziggi Studio and Ekta Solanki.
Ziggi Studio's Raj Gharana CollectionAs a big fan of
Ziggi Studio I couldn't wait to see their new 2011 collection and was instantly blown away when they started off their section of the fashion show with the green and gold sherwani (seen on the right in the photo above), modelled by Asiana Magazine veteran Cameron Khan. There was a very regal look to this collection.
Ekta SolankiI was impressed by Ekta's collection not just on the catwalk, but up close in her exhibition space. It's the colour combinations which you'd think wouldn't go together, but they do, and the big bold embroidery patterns. My favourites were the blue and gold outfits.
TruphaeI knew very little about Truphae before this event, and I believe this event was the launch of their brand. I didn't really feel there was a theme to their collection as the outfits didn't seem to go together. Individually though, there were a few outfits which I liked the look of.
Gul's StyleGul's Style closed the show, and they were one of the few fashion show designers who didn't have an exhibition stand where visitors could get a closer look and touch the outfits for themselves. They had some pretty outfits though, including the finale piece seen above which one of my non-asian work colleagues described as "a technicolour dreamcoat".
Khushboo's by ChandKhushboo's always put on a good catwalk show, but like Gul's Style I don't think they had an exhibition stand so I didn't get a chance to see for myself what their customer service is like!
Kyle's CollectionThis was the showpiece of their catwalk show - the necklace was impressive (if you could call it a necklace - it was so much more!) although probably very difficult to be the person wearing it at a wedding/party - imagine people trying to greet you with a hug/kiss whilst wearing that! However I'd love to wear the headpiece and play princess for a day.
MongasAs well as featuring in the main fashion show, Mongas also had a mini-catwalk in their exhibition space which was a nice touch.
RDCSonas CoutureI had high hopes for Sonas Couture - having loved what I'd seen on their website and in the magazines. Sadly their fashion show outfits were a bit hit and miss for me. I liked this gold outfit though, especially the detail on the sleeves.
The Asiana Fashion Show ModelsThere were a few comments made about the ethnicity of the models at this year's fashion show. The first segment by Roshan's was a stream of non-asian models, and sadly it stayed that way for most of the event. I counted 3 asian models out of all the girls (including pakistani model and recent Asiana Magazine cover star Mehreen Syed) and just 2 out of the guys.
Getting a seat for the fashion showHaving been to the Asiana Bridal Show before, I knew from experience that to get a decent seat for the fashion show you have to start queuing up early - and if you're at the front of the queue, somehow a stream of people always manage to get "priority" entry before you. The same was true this year, and even though I had my seats reserved (big thanks to Manni at Asiana), the majority of the front rows were reserved for sponsor's and exhibitor's guests rather than the public who had paid an entry fee to see the fashion show, which I thought was a little unfair!
Did you attend the exhibition and/or the catwalk show? What did you think overall?
