Sometimes even your over-flowing closet can’t salvage a bad wear day. But don’t be fazed by those impossibly elaborate business dinners that you just have to attend. Glam times call for glam measures. Escada from Germany has landed in Mumbai and opened the doors to a stylish and feminine wardrobe for you.

The clothes: expertly cut and perfectly finished pieces in mostly black, white, beige and navy. Slip into the slim bottomed pants. Add a ruffled blouse with bows and pleats. Big city chic’s a cinch with wide belts that promise to cinch your Pilates-toned waist to perfection.

Our Trendy Fashionista also recommends the layered jersey dresses, which manage to strike the right balance between sexy and graceful. And you can’t go wrong in Escada evening wear that ranges from silk corsage creations to sexy black-and-white tiger prints with plunging necklines.

Time to restructure your wardrobe with a dash of European engineering?

Escada, Ground floor, Villar Ville, House No. 16, Ramchandani Marg, Colaba. Telephone: 32688061. Ground floor, Patkar Bungalow, 24 Guru Nanak Road, Bandra (W). Telephone: 40062030.
Prices: Start at Rs. 8,000 for tees and blouses, Rs. 15,000 for pants and skirts, Rs. 20,000 for dresses and pullovers.

Tonight you’re in the mood for love. Not movies. Not malls. Just music, that speaks to you, and your’s.

Join Dilli’s beautiful people at Quli Shah’s tomb in the shadow of the majestic Qutb Minar. The Jahaan-e-Khusrau music festival, whose theme this year is ‘the voice of the woman’, opens tonight with songs by Abida Parveen, the flamboyant artiste who makes the trek every year from Paksitan.

Ladies with voices dipped in honey will headline the three days. Bollywood sufi singer (yes, there is such a thing) Rekha Bharadwaj, classical vocalist Meeta Pandit, and folk-classical singer Malini Awasthi will be there. As will Iranian-born vocalist Sussan Deyhim and Somerville-native dancer Wendy Jehlen.

The fest, in its seventh year, has become bigger and better. Expect to see the man-behind-the festival Muzaffar Ali, in his striking Kotwara kurtas, flanked by wife Meera. Also a parade of Page 3 regulars. And, yes, Priyanka.

Line up for passes before they run out. And let the soul-stirring sufi ‘kalaams’ wash over you.

March 30 through April 1, 2007 at Quli Khan’s Tomb (below the Qutub Minar), Mehrauli Archeological Park.
Day 1 Friday, 30th March, 2007: Wendy Jehlen, Meeta Pandit, Nizami brothers, Abida Parveen
Day 2, Saturday, 31st March, 2007: Religions of Love, Sanskriti School, Javed Jaafri, rekha Bhardwaj, Adil Hussaini & Group, Sussan Deyhim along with her Iranian and Indian musicians
Day 3, Sunday, 1st April, 2007: Chiara Nath & Sunit Tandon, Malini Awasthi, Shaukat Ali, Abida Parveen
Tickets for Rs. 800, Rs. 600, and Rs. 300 are available at the following locations:
Kotwara Studios, 12 Khan Market
Kotwara, Crescent at the Qutub, Lado Sarai
L’affaire, M-Block Market, G.K. - 1
D-3, Connaught Place
12 Khan Market
E-3, South Extension 2
Dilli Haat, Opposite INA Market
Community Centre, Saket
DLF City Centre, Mehrauli Gurgaon Road
Centerstage Mall, Sector-18, Noida
Planet M

You’ve teamed stringy summer dresses with cotton three-quarters. You’ve upped style-standards by wearing a choli and a stole to a book reading. And you’ve carried your laptop in a blingy sequined cloth bag.

Now here’s a twist for the rest of a bodylicious you.

Sign up at Talwalkar’s for Bharat Thakur’s Artistic Yoga. The first decent yoga class to hit Bangalore East, artistic yoga adds a fun quotient to ancient yoga techniques.

Body sculpting, mass loss, energizing, strength-building, cardio, stress relief — and workouts for specific areas, that’s what artistic yoga does. Tata, floppy tums. Hello, surfboard abs!

There’s more. Artistic yoga doesn’t expect you to be super-flexible. Even if you can’t touch your toes on Day 1, they’ll still help you acquire that ready-for-anything summer bod at the end of a few sessions.

So throw on some comfy clothes. And stop by at Talwalkar’s for some Omeopathy.

Talwalkar’s Gym, Ulsoor Road. Telephone: 98453 76257, 99453 74574. Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, 6.15 am-7.15 am; 7.15 am-8.15 am (11 am-noon and 8 pm-9 pm classes beginning soon).
Price: Rs. 1,500 per month with the first class free.

You’re no Temperamental Tina. But there are days when you seem to slip back into your adolescent mindset: No one understands you. Especially when it comes to the big things.

Trendy recommends reaching out. To a slim new book called 21 Under 40, where 21 new South Asian woman writers under the age of 40 have a short story for every emotion.

Frustrated? Read ‘Hue and Cry’, a riveting story about a woman who can always tell when someone’s lying.

Angry? Try ‘Hammer Gang’, in which the protagonist, after waiting for years for a US visa and a better life, finally loses his cool.

Scared? The terribly touching ‘The Third Cloud’, about a child caught in a war she does not understand.

Resigned? A miniature masterpiece, ‘Lotus’ is about a father, his newborn and his wife who has died in childbirth.

Surprised? So you think nothing will faze you again? ‘Ferris Wheel’ takes you on a ride to places you’ve never been.

Curious? Delve into ‘Murk of Art’, featuring the first ever Mughal-era detective.

Joyful? To laugh aloud, check out ‘Something Special About Sayyida’.

You’ll never feel alone again.

21 Under 40: New Stories for a New Generation. Edited by Anita Roy. Published by Zubaan.
Price: Rs. 295.

Yup. Your World Cup fever has fast abated. Here’s some back-up entertainment guaranteed to take your mind off the weeping willow.

If you, understandably, want to see heads roll, catch Frank Miller’s gore fest. 300 is a dazzling visual-effects treat, with a somewhat dodgy historical background. Tomato-ketchup blood on very yummy men from warring sides — Spartan and Persian — make this a must watch before it exits theatres.

Still out for blood? Watch The Hills Have Eyes, a remake of the 1977 horror classic. High on violence and carnage, it features a family stranded in the desert, where they have to fight mutant cannibals if they want to keep from being eaten.

After you’ve vented your ire, our Trendy Movie Critic recommends Little Miss Sunshine to get your spirits up where they belong. A dysfunctional family’s on a mission to help their pre-pubescent little girl win a beauty pageant. Underneath much comic mayhem, the film takes a satirical look at what it means to be a loser.

And if these flicks and some popcorn don’t put you back on track, then you might just need to switch to chess.

Stars deserve to look like stars. But those work-weeks drain the stardust out of you. Trendy suggests lunar therapy.

Moonlight makes you look goh-juss. And the beams affect the partner too — “Look, hon. A full moon.”

Now that the nights are cool, but not chilly, sign up with Woody Adventures. With decade-long expertise, they organize treks and cycle expeditions into the neighbouring hills on full moon nights.

So pick up your sneakers and water-proof clothing, and head to Channagiri for the trek. Or Savanadurga for the cycling. Sixty km out of Bangalore, under those glorious moonbeams, leaves turn a greener shade of jade and shadows morph into black, prancing pixies. Familiar landscapes become magic.

So book yourself and your beau. Or maybe the gal-pals. Choose between the trek and the bicycle ride, and select the difficulty-grade. Then install a lunar calendar on your desktop. And count the hours.

Contact Woody Adventures’ Madhusudan Shukla at 22259159, 41136271 or 9845122969.
Treks cost Rs. 750 per head (inclusive of non-AC transport to the foothills, dinner, snacks, and guide charges). Cycling expeditions cost Rs. 950 per head (bicycles, non-AC transport, snacks, facilitator charges, campfire and guitarist included).

Today Trendy continues our Ooh La La, Online occasional series on new and cool shopping websites. Shopping in your pyjamas rocks! If only everything in life could be so easy.

It’s Tuesday. And you’re thinking ballet pumps, not bottomlines, stilettos not stylesheets. And cursing a workweek so packed it makes Cinderella look like a beach bum.

When your foot fetish threatens to run away with you, sit back. Switch on your computer. And let the cursor morph into a magic wand that doesn’t believe in deadlines.

Godmamma’s URL is Bigshoebazaar.com. It’s the only Indian portal devoted to footwear, partnered by leading brands like Lotus Bawa, Lee Cooper Femmes, Bags n More and Woodland. In magicspeak, that’s more than 300 designs in sandals, flats, formals and sports shoes.

Our Trendy After-Hours Shopaholic was further floored by the size chart. It’s simple and easy to use and if you’re still in doubt — like she was — they’ll actually get someone with feet the same size to try on the pair before mailing it.

Customer service is extremely courteous. What’s more, if the shoes don’t fit, are damaged or make you unhappy for any reason at all, you can just courier them back. The Kanpur-based store will refund the tab and throw in a few discount coupons.

No glass slippers here. Just happily ever-afters.

Bigshoebazaar.com. Prices start at Rs. 450. Deliveries take a week.

Click here to read our earlier Ooh La La, Online shopping for accessories.

You like to be a talking point. Your clothes, your shoes, your bags — and your house. ‘Sotodecor’, a stunning exhibition of furniture, accessories, and artworks certainly will spark conversation — if snake scales on your table tops don’t give you a funny feeling.

Swiss-born, but now forever Goan artist couple, Sonja Weder and Thomas Schnider enamel their products with real leaves, plant fibres, and real shedded snake scales. Eco-friendly boards made of cotton, other pressed fibres and metal are used for the main body of the products.

Trendy loved the money plant centre table with grooves for tea-lights, the banana leaf candle stands and the console with its eye-catching reptilian surface.

Dress up your walls, too, with the media collage artwork made of seeds, petals and leaves on handmade paper, acrylic sheets and glass.

The products are surprisingly durable. Under several artfully-applied coats of lacquer, you can still see, touch and feel the outline of each vein.

Your guest will be talking about your home. For a long, long time.

On at Karkhana, F-322, Lado Sarai (near Crescent at Qutab) till April 8. Telephone: 65957097. Closed Sundays. Website: www.sotodecor.com.
Price: About Rs. 3,000 to Rs. 50,000 (and higher for art works).

You are the discerning diva. You can tell at a glance if the Miu Miu bag came from Manila or Milan. Just as your palate can make out if pomegranate reduction was slow-cooked, or rushed with roux.

If your senses are tired of loud music, garish lighting and con-food, hop across to Nanking. After Mumbai and Delhi, super-restaurateur Baba Ling’s newest baby is wooing namma Bengaluru with classic Cantonese cuisine.

Starters that whet the appetite, not vanquish it. Stirfries with just the right bite, not overdone indistinguishables. Pork ribs that fall apart at the merest touch of a chopstick.

And the seafood, which had our Trendy Taster all a-tingle. Fish, of course, but also lobsters, crabs and other marine creatures that you can single out in their tank for transportation to your table. For a two-in-one experience, try the half-and-half prawns, two dishes on one plate.

The service is quick and unobtrusive, but steal moments between courses to appreciate anew the niceness of spacious seating and subtle lighting. It’s perfect for date dinners.

Like your relationship, this is the real thing.

Nanking, 2nd floor, Sigma Mall, Cunningham Road, Bangalore. Telephone: 41472281, 41472282. Average meal for two: Rs. 1,200. Liquor licence awaited.

You’ve watched all the films and the malls don’t do it for you anymore. So what’s a girl to do on a sunshiney day?

Pick up Ten Heritage Walks of Mumbai, and let author Fiona Fernandez show you the city like never before. Ten well-researched routes (ranging from one to 4.5 kilometres each) take you around interesting areas in South Mumbai and Bandra. Superbly shot visuals give you a taste of what’s to come.

The layouts may be a tad confusing, the spellings not always reliable, but Fiona points out great places to eat, quaint aspects of architecture and nuggets of history along each trail. She tells about Sir Bartle Frere’s contribution to the growth of Mumbai with as much ease as she discusses the Parsi fare at Jimmy Boy. She even recommends where to park your car before you begin. It’s like your gal pal showing you around her favourite neighbourhood haunts.

Whether you snuggle up with this book or take it to the streets in your backpack, be ready to fall in love with Mumbai all over again.

Ten Heritage Walks of Mumbai. Written by Fiona Fernandez, pictures by Disha Art, published by Rupa & Co. Price: Rs. 395.