It was an event with a cause — to provide a mega platform to the talented fashion designers of the Northeast. And yes, that has been the motto of the Assam Fashion Week that has been organized in Guwahati for the fourth year in a row now by the premier IT and allied education major of the region, CEC.

The fourth edition of this annual event was held at the city’s Pragjyoti ITA cultural complex at Machkhowa during December 17-20. This year’s event was presented by the Guwahati-based satellite television channel DY365, while Yahoo extended support by hosting the website www.assamfashionweek.com.

CEC has a reputation of conducting high quality shows in Guwahati since 2000 and it was evident in Assam Fashion Week 2008 also as it attracted more than 75 fashion designers from all over the region. A panel of elite judges picked the best among them who got a unique chance to showcase and promote their exclusive creations in front of some specially-invited garment buyers. The organizers sure deserve praise for inviting about 100 garment buyers from all over India.

Everyday during the event, four special shows were held for the fashion designers. It also meant that the budding fashion designers got the rare opportunity to meet some reputed names in the industry — the event was not a mere fashion show for entertainment but there was some real business sense inherent in it.

The fashion week was inaugurated by Assam’s noted classical dance exponent Indira PP Bora and it followed with the inaugural Clubbed Fashion Show where renowned designers of the Northeast displayed their ensembles. A special camp for the aspiring models was also started from day one. The first day also saw the beginning of a four-day-long garment exhibition alongside the fashion week.

For the aspiring designers, there was a special fashion sketch contest on the second day’s agenda where Indramoni Sinha from Silchar came out triumphant. The fashion photography contest held on the later part of the day was judged by photographer Utpal Barua and the winner was Rahul Biswas. Then there was a special presentation on beauty and fashion by well-known beautician Bhanu Sharma.

For the first time in this region, a live hair styling and make-up competition, billed Trend 2009, was also held wherein ten contestants participated with live models on themes given by the judges. Sangita Kakoti bagged the top honours in this contest.

Day three saw the conclusion of the modelling camp from where models were selected for the grand finale of the Assam Fashion Week. A seminar on fashion entrepreneurship was also held with Ava Bordoloi, a senior faculty of fashion designing department of CEC, Silpukhuri as the speaker.

The grand finale of the 4th Assam Fashion Week was held in the evening of December 20, the final day of the event, at Pragjyoti ITA cultural complex. The grand finale was inaugurated by Assamese film star Pranjal Saikia along with Jagadish Bora, MD, Northeastern Handloom and Handicraft Development Corporation. The fashion show that followed saw over 100 models walk the ramp wearing various traditional and modern collections of the participating designers. ‘Global warming’ was the theme for the special designers contest that was won by Baba M.

The other prize winners for the various contests held during the fashion week were — Upcoming Designer Award for the students of Sanskriti The Gurukul and Aspiring Model Award for Priyanka and Angshuman.

The show was compered by Avik and Chayanika, while the founder president of CEC Society, Dipankar Dutta, thanked all for making this mega fashion carnival a big success.

And as was evident, the Assam Fashion Week was not a single designer’s show with all the designers from the entire Northeast getting equal importance and opportunity, truly reflecting the concept of unity in diversity.

Bornali Konwar