I did my nails and called them “Taxi Nails” and I set out to drive to DLF Emporio for the much-anticipated 2012 edition of Vogue Fashion’s Night Out. In 2011, I wasn’t aware of what the hell this was or why I should bother to go – I did go but with a bunch of friends and we reached only past 9:30 p.m. and the focus was more on the alcohol that was freely available at almost all of the stores. I was determined to be on time for the 2012 edition – 6 p.m. – also because I was meeting with one of the representatives of the Conde Nast Digital team and wanted to introduce myself as a blogger. But of course, just as I’d rolled the car out of my parking spot at home, a flat tyre greeted me. I usually replace my own flat tyres but in this case, I wasn’t appropriately dressed for a 15 minute on-the-road session of jacking up the car and rolling out the spare – especially in Noida. Fortunately, the repair shop wasn’t too far and after being stared at [ I’m positive the dozens of useless men around the shop also took photos of me on their mobile phones ] and being delayed by almost an hour, I finally left Noida for VFNO!
What you see in the photo on the right was responsible for the flat tyre.
Most stores at @dlfemporio had some sort of promotions specially for the VFNO event – although most of those promotions first required you to make a purchase. There was a Ciroc installation on the ground floor – with glittery disco balls.
Rohit Bal and Shantanu & Nikhil had designed special edition t-shirts for VFNO as well and there were specially designed shopping bags too, among other things. These could be purchased from a couple of kiosks on the ground floor.
While I waited for the crowd to pick up, I chomped on a nice hot-dog with pickles that was available on the ground-floor. Like last year, the Kitsch store was probably the only store that had snacky bits to eat apart from the regular alcohol, cocktails and mocktails. All of them seemed to be serving the same champagne though, which was so-so. This year’s VFNO was a lot more staid than the one that was held in 2011. Oh! The martinis at the Louboutin Store were fabulous. I went back to the store for more.
This was one of the highlights of the event though. The Vogue Loves store where, apparently, designer-wear was available for literally 10% of the regular prices. I’m not sure what the deal was really because the queue was quite long. All the money from this endeavor is donated to Habitat for Humanity by @vogueindia
While I was chatting with Nikki from Bally, there was a sudden ruckus on the ground floor and it seemed like all the people had converged from nowhere. Karan Johar had arrived. There weren’t as many “celeb appearances” either as compared to last year.
Finally some of my friends started to arrive and @superneha83 was carrying a gorgeous Manish Arora handbag! Finally some well-dressed people I tell you!
The second highlight of the day for me was a quick trip to the Christian Louboutin store! Such lovely people! Photography of the store was not allowed but Keerti did help us flip through the large coffee-table book with never-before seen photos from some of the Loubis campaigns. Quite a treat. The store was giving away free temporary tattoos and there was a fortune-teller lady as well. It’s a VERY small store and it was stuffy and hot but it was done SO well. I loved it.
That’s @santumisra being all cute – love his bow-ties.
And that’s me trying out a composite image while wearing the Shantanu & Nikhil VFNO India tee.
Fashion disparities in India are like any other disparities. Shockingly extreme. Almost comical at times. The focus is more on bling than on elegance – which is not something new that I’m revealing. Compared to the VFNO events that take place outside India, the Indian edition was probably the worst of the lot. [ This is strictly my opinion and I haven’t physically been to any other VFNO but you can tell the difference by just Googling for VFNO India and comparing the results with VFNO London for example. ] Here’s hoping it gets better!
The shoppers who turn up for VFNO, how do they know what is happening at what store? Do they have to visit each store separately to find out if there’s a promotion? [ That would be a nightmare. ] I hope @vogueindia does something with the VFNO India website where there’s more detailed information apart from just one sentence per store. Better, media-rich updates would be nice too.
Friends and I ended the night with a couple of hours of dancing at Keya so all in all, it was an amazing evening!
3 comments
I was admittedly a little sad that I couldn’t attend VNFO. Although I’m not a fan of crowds & I’m making an honest attempt to save us so I think it worked out well. 🙂
I am absolutely drooling over these gorgeous X100 photos. You really make magic with the camera, Naina. It’s an amazing but sometimes really fussy camera & I’m trying to get a ton of practise so I can be at least half as good as this.
And usually I’m all for attacking brands because they treat India like the unwanted cousin or something (ok bad analogy but you get the picture) but then again it’s Delhi so I don’t think any fashion / shopping event would work without nauseating amount of bling.
You didn’t miss much Magali. And there really wasn’t any bling this time. I think the trouble I had, personally, was that I didn’t know what was going on. I was handed a set of three sheets of paper, which listed what each brand was doing in their stores but it was the same thing I’d already read on the website – but I got those sheets of paper as a blogger, not as a shopper. There was no engagement / interaction but it was one big party. I didn’t even go up to the second floor. I find it amazing that despite how terrible India is as a place to do business, brands like Loubis still open shop here. There is a lot of money that the shoppers spend yes but it is a nightmare from a business point of view.
Oops *save up not us.
Comments are closed.