How does one capture an event that last five full days in one blog post? By dividing the posts into People Off The Ramp Part I and Part II, Event Overview, People On The Ramp and Backstage [ the last two are yet to be written and published ] and of course there are the existing project pages for the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week on the Naina.co website.

In this post, I’ve given a short [ if you can call a collection of more than 100 images short that is! ] overview of the fantastic days that I got to spend at the WIFW SS 2012. I’ve covered the venue, a bit of the backstage, the exhibition areas, the food stalls [ missed the other restaurants at the back though - was too busy eating there ], a bit of the ramp and a couple of shows, the finale, the bar areas and some of the stalls that were put up by various fashion designers.

The above is from the last show on Day One by Rajesh Pratap Singh.

Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week Spring Summer 2012 was held at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi and the entry to the building had been done up by PlayClan, pictured above. The exhibition area and some of the designers’ stalls are pictured below.

The list of all the fashion designers showing at the event.

I was switching between fashion shows and exhibition areas as much as possible to get a feel of the entire experience – hence the ramp shows up above in the middle of the designers stalls and the stalls continue below. The photographs in this blog post have been arranged chronologically.

Rohit Bal’s setup in the exhibition area was open only on day one of the WIFW. Ritu Kumar had a setup as well, with a few images of the same above – the hand purses, scarves and a wide angle view. @anandbhushan’s setup had these lovely ensembles with layers of structural elements : beads, feathers, embellishments that looked like shells and maybe were actual shells – gorgeous pieces. Some designers were not comfortable with a camera in their setup areas so I didn’t get to shoot but I did get to soak in all the awesomeness.

So that’s all with the insides of some of the designer’s stalls in the exhibition area of the main hall of Pragati Maidan during the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week Spring Summer 2012! [ That's quite a mouthful, hence the very convenient WIFW abbreviation ].

Some more details from in and around the venue – the back of the hall was almost always crowded between breaks from the fashion shows. Everyone was out for a smoke break. Unfortunately, no one I could find who was ok with being shot with a cigarette between their lips / fingers, which is just as well. There was also the food stall area where there was a Mocha setup and another joint – and I no longer remember the name. Sorry. My staple for all 4 days that I was there was cold coffee / oreo shake + the Lebanese wrap. Hummus FTW!

I also got to photograph the models getting ready backstage at the Fashion Week and I’ve added some glimpses here but it will need a dedicated blog post, which should come up soon. Since this was my first time back stage, it was awesome fun. I had no restrictive client brief and was free to shoot the way I wanted. Props to Edelman and FDCI for making it happen. Many thank yous in order.

The Press Photographers pit was a bitch to work in. It was packed to the nines and will burly men who hadn’t showered in weeks. They were rude, vulgar and rowdy – even if overworked, yelling to the model walking down the ramp, “Arrey bra toh utaar deti” is not acceptable. The pit did not care that there was a woman sitting among them. They spewed expletives anyway. What shocked me the most though, was this other female press photographer who joined us for one of the shows on Day Four and joined her male counterparts in yelling at the models walking down the ramp. The audience and maybe even the models don’t really hear what’s being yelled because the music is very loud.

That there is the end of the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week with some images from the grand finale and the bar areas as well as a few remaining photographs from the backstage and makeup areas.

For a bird’s eye view of the exhibition area at the Pragati Maidan venue of the WIFW SS 2012 – the smaller image is above – to look at the panorama below, take your mouse cursor over the image and move left or right without clicking. Hall one on the right and Hall Two on the left where the fashion shows were taking place alternately.