Who fared better, LFW or WIFW?

New Delhi: India has just seen back-to-back fashion weeks for the first time. So, who fared better, Lakme Fashion Week or the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week?

For all the good intentions, the 20-designer Lakme Fashion Week would perhaps be best remembered for slipping dresses and splitting skirts.

But, the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week with its 80 designers beat the Mumbai show hands down in keeping the focus on fashion and business.

International buyers at the two fashion weeks were:

Lakme: Browns, Harvey Nichols, Saks Fifth Avenue, C K Tang, Lords and Taylor

Wills: Bloomingdale’s, Harvey Nichols, Saks Fifth Avenue, Harrods, Selfridges

The list seems fairly balanced until one observes that old supporters of the now defunct Lakme India Fashion Week like Browns, Selfridges and Harrods ditched the event for the Wills Fashion Week this year.

"The list (of buyers) that we have got is fabulous. So, this has been a very significant fashion week," MD, IMG-TWI, South Asia, Ravi Krishnan said.

In creating Bollywood hype, both fashion weeks lured in the stars, but Lakme with Bollywood designers Manish Malhotra, Rocky S and Surily Goel got the bigger names.

Bollywood onslaught

Lakme: Salman Khan, John Abraham, Kajol, Preity Zinta

Wills: Jaya Bachchan, Shweta Nanda, Shilpa Shetty, Soha Ali Khan

So, which fashion week showcased better clothes?

Runway Hits

Lakme: Sabyasachi Mukherjee, Ashish Soni, Narendra Kumar, Priyadarshini Rao, Anshu

Wills: Ritu Kumar, Rajesh Pratap Singh, Namrata Joshipura, Manish Arora, Shantanu & Nikhil Mehra

Lakme's best shows were far more innovative than the best on the Wills runway. Apart from designer Manish Arora, who virtually showcased his London Fashion Week collection, there was little cutting edge style on the Wills runway.

But on an average, the Wills event wins over the Lakme event because it had more shows of a basic standard. Apart from a few, most Lakme shows were dated, especially designer Ritu Beri's disastrous finale in Mumbai.

The Fashion Design Council scored a major point when it got both Wills and Kingfisher as sponsors. While the business and press mileage is still awaited, it seems clear that Wills has won this round.