Anamika Khanna plays to a small gallery

Designer hit all the right notes on the opening night of LFW. Too bad she didn’t get the audience she deserved

The much hyped opening night of Lakme Fashion Week kickstarted with an off-site show by the reigning queen of indi-fusion, Anamika Khanna. And while the Kolkata-based designer, best known for her signature knotted tunics and diaphanous lehengas should have packed in the crowds, given that her shows in the city are few and far between, empty seats littered the venue.

But that's no knock on Khanna, whose collection’s future holds plenty of magazine shoots and high profile paparazzi photos. Virginal white dominated the ramp, and the most ingenious item on display was Khanna's shirt choli- cropped white shirts that would have made Audrey Hepburn proud, paired with floaty tulle lehengas worn over cotton leggings.

A magazine stylist sighed, "That’s what I want to wear when I get married," when Khanna sent out model after model in high-waisted white pants and her signature texturised cutout jackets. Even if you don’t have the body of a swimsuit model, her wide-legged cotton pants with ethnic embroidered borders would be worth the hefty price tag. And completing the night’s toast to subtle Indian beauty was the return of supermodel-turned-photographer Sheetal Mallar to the ramp.