USA: Rising designer, and wife of hip-hop mogul Damon Dash, Rachel Roy given top honours at Bollywood Fashion Awards

Record ID: 196642

  • Title: USA: Rising designer, and wife of hip-hop mogul Damon Dash, Rachel Roy given top honours at Bollywood Fashion Awards
  • Date: 4th August 2006
  • Summary: DESIGNER RACHEL ROY POSING WITH SUPERMODEL IMAN AUDIENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) RACHEL ROY, DESIGNER SAYING: "I'm so honoured that my first awards in fashion is from my community and I'm so proud of that, thank you aso much and I really appreciate this." THE STAGE VIDEO MONTAGE OF SAMMY DAVIS JUNIOR ALTOVISE SAMMY DAVIS JUNIOR (WIFE OF SAMMY DAVIS JR.) AUDIENCE BEN VENEER A
  • Embargoed: 19th August 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVA2E6GGICDQVYXG8Z699VWRR45K
  • Story Text: Rising star Rachel Roy and veteran song-and-dance man Ben Vereen won top honours on Saturday (July 29) at a colourful and lively presentation of the 2006 Bollywood Fashion Awards.
    Supermodel and cosmetics giant Iman presented Roy with the award for outstanding contribution to American fashion.
    "I'm so honoured that my first awards in fashion is from my community and I'm so proud of that, thank you aso much and I really appreciate this," said the wife of hip-hop mogul Damon Dash, who is known for dressing Hollywood stars such as Lindsay Lohan and Halle Berry.
    The Bollywood Fashion Awards, which are associated with a host of relatively recent prizes for India's burgeoning film and entertainment industry such as the Bollywood Film Awards and the Bollywood Music Awards, were handed out in a vibrant show at Manhattan's legendary Roseland Ballroom.
    Tony award winner Ben Vereen, an actor and singer known to television audiences for playing "Chicken George" in the miniseries "Roots," was given the Sammy Davis Junior Award, in recognition of a winning combination of style and talent that helps meld the entertainment and fashion worlds. Davis' widow Altovise presented the award to Vereen.
    The British female trio "Rouge" was named most stylish international group, while models of the year went to Nethtra and Aryan Vaid.
    The ceremony also served as de facto fashion show for Indian designers, including Manish Malhotra, who was named designer of the year for film, and Sabyasachi Mukherjee, India's hottest new designer who won designer of the year for haute couture. The show ended with a showing of Mukherjee's new line, a dramatic but considerably more austere and monochromatic collection than the others shown on Saturday.
    Mukerjee said he wanted to express a different face of India with the collection.
    He explained to Reuters, "I'm showing you what India stands for, because there's going to be an eclectic mix of Indian textiles, but, you know, Bollywood, you know, we have a preconceived notion about what Bollywood is, it's, it's considered to be bright and brashful and colourful and sequinned, so this is quite an antithesis of what people expect Bollywood to be."
    By contrast the collections by Manish Malhotra and Atlanta-based designer Sushma Patel hewed more closely to what is often thought of as traditional Indian fashion.
    Top models from the US and India as well as Miss Pakistan 2006, walked the runway.
    For Miss Pakistan, she saw the event as an opportune way for the South-Asian community to gain exposure.
    "People in America get to know more about Bollywood and Bollywood is one of the biggest film industries. I think it produces more movies than Hollywood now, so, I think it's great," said Sehr Mahmood.
    The evening was hosted by Bombay Dreams lead Manu Narayan, and musical performers included Amir Jamal, DJ Sanj, Manu Narayan and Rouge in numbers that ranged from Broadway-style to hip-hop, but all with an Indian flavour. U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton opened the show with a videotaped message.
    The 2007 Bollywood Fashion Awards will be held in Monte Carlo.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: Audio restrictions: please see Business Notes for more information.
Register