Rohit Bal's latest collection

Dahling, you know how my calendar’s always full. But I made it a point to pencil in an exclusive preview of Rohit Bal’s India Fashion Week collection. After all, Gudda and his grand designs, up close and personal aboard a luxury yacht, is something even your Trendy Fashionista can’t feign indifference to.

The Fall/Winter 2008 line that I checked out evidently draws inspiration from Indian tradition: Ashta Dhatu, a longstanding concept where eight different metals were melded into forms of incredible physical and spiritual strength and beauty (from gods’ statues to jewellery that protects from the evil eye). Hues of gold, silver, copper, tin, zinc, mercury, lead and iron make up Bal’s energetic colour palette. The dramatic dresses — with full, flouncy skirts and rippling with a very futuristic, metallic sheen — are just right for a sophisticated soiree or even a high-octane cocktails-and-dinner. Look out for puffballs and layered skirts with straps, halter necks, off-shoulders and even eye-catching OTT sleeves. And although the gown that Nina Manuel modelled to perfection didn’t quite seem to go with the rest of the range, it’s still the one I’d pick for myself: As richly fluid as claret being poured into a wine goblet, with standout ruffled sleeves that put the fab into fabulous.

Gudda’s showing his true mettle