It was like an evening out of the quintessential holiday card this past Saturday, December 19th in New York City. The snow falling, the Christmas trees glistening, the lights of those few brave cars on the road shimmering in the windy blizzard, the beautiful models, the cool celebrities and the unforgettable fashions inside Asia Society wowing a packed audience… Yes, you read that right! Indeed, while the snow covered the Big Apple in more than a foot of powdery, chilly goodness, those of us lucky enough — and lets face it, courageous too — to have made it to the Engendered event of the season were treated to the most delightful fashion show I have ever witnessed. And you know I’m no stranger to NY Fashion Week! But those stuffy shows in those over-packed Tents, with the pretentious attitudes of the publicists and the grumpy, hungry-looking models could never hold a candle to the magic that Myna Mukherjee and her fabulous team — which of course includes AVS’s very own Jitin Hingorani! — helped to create on a snowy, wildly unpredictable night in NYC.

The event was a resounding success, bringing attention to victims of AIDS, women who suffer because of war and violence and those who, through their naturally androgynous nature, may not conform to a particular standard in this world of ours which, we all know, likes to impose its ‘labels’ a LOT. Three fantastic designers, four wonderful dancers and a choice league of world-renowned celebrities brought glamour, class and phenomenal entertainment to this fashion show with a cause.

After an action-packed red carpet, where members of the press got the chance to interview designers Manish Arora and Zolaykha Sherzad, actors Ami Sheth and Manu Narayan, comedian Vidur Kapur and filmmaker Mira Nair, the fashion show was introduced by the night’s MC Jitin Hingorani and Engendered Executive Director Myna Mukherjee, who pointed out that “having a civil society should mean having the choice to love who you want”. She added that for South Asians especially “culture and religion can be paralyzing to us, in living the life we want to live”.

The show began with Mesma Belsare, a trans-gender dancer of Indian heritage who is simply the image of beauty both on the stage, and off. Her classical dance honoring the goddess Kurukulla — viewed as bewitching by both sexes in traditional mythology —  was breathtaking and the perfect segue way to designer Asher Jay’s line titled ‘ONE’. Fashion Conscience ‘09  marked the solo debut for Jay, a multi-cultural, elegantly hip woman herself, who has worked for Ralph Lauren and Anna Sui. Her line was short and sweet, with highlights including Manu Narayan dressed in a mysterious black hood and Vidur Kapur wearing a long shiny black shirt with patent combat boots. While her clothes may have lacked the courageous joie-de-vivre I would have liked from a first line, they more than made up for in their clean manufacturing and cool construction. And her color choices — particularly when pairing black with a dark pigeon-blood red — were sublime.

Next up, after a dance segment by Rajiv Purohit and Chilaiares which was a perfect fusion of traditional Kathak dance and the mystical turns made famous by the Sufi Whirling Dervishes, Afghani designer Zolaykha Sherzad’s line — titled ‘LOVE’ — took centerstage. Positively breathtaking, this was by far my MUST-HAVE fantasy of the evening. While I may have drooled over Manish Arora’s theatrical creations, it was the clean, sophisticated elegance of Sherzad’s chapan-style coats and jackets in Ikat fabrics — the traditional chapan has become famous as the preferred garment of Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai, of course — paired with soft shantung silk harem pants and her poetry inscribed silk-screened sheathe dresses which truly captivated me. Ms. Sherzad is the perfect image of her company Zarif, which means ‘Precious’ in Dari. She is at once elegant and simple, strong and soft-spoken. Her efforts in making sure that century-old crafts and cultural traditions do not go forgotten as a result of years of war, religious extremism and violence in the country have certainly paid off in bringing Afghan glamour to the forefront of fashion. She was recently featured in Time Magazine and was responsible in 2005 for having organized the first fashion show in Kabul in 30 years. Her clothes are currently sold in Paris at the innovative, always ahead of its times Agnes b. shop.

After a wonderfully spirited and innovative performance by Japanese dancer Maho Udo — who danced on the ‘Sticky & Sweet Tour 09′ with Madonna this past summer — it was the turn of Indian glamour icon Manish Arora with his line titled ‘POSITIVE’. Whether Arora designs a color palette for MAC cosmetics, or is named one of the top 10 designers at Paris Fashion Week, or even puts together a line for Engendered, he is always and truly a fashion innovator. And a really lovely man in person! Kind and unaffected, with a husky voice, he joked around with Mira Nair, who joined him on stage in one of his outfits — a wonderful black and gold number. His line-up was by far the most outrageously colorful and dream-inducing. From his phenomenal psychedelic mirrored superboots, to a red ruffles short wonderland of a dress, to his choli-inspired acid-colored jumpsuit, to a blue degradé flamenco gown with an explosion of feathers, and finally to a supershort grey coat, with flouncy sequined bottom and lined in deep turquoise (can anyone remember it on M.I.A.?!) the man knows how to make a girl drool. While I don’t see myself wearing his clothes on a regular night out in NYC, if ever I should find myself invited to a glamorous fashion ball in Venice, or a Bollywood extravaganza in Paris, Arora will be the first person I’ll call!

The closing words on this fabulously magical evening were spoken by the ever-profound Mira Nair. “I have always been inspired by the marginal, but also intrigued by who decides what is marginal, though tonight we begin to see that the marginal is no longer marginal”. While the crowd moved upstairs to a rockin’ afterparty of music, Merlot, mingling and meaningful conversations, I made my discreet exit into the winter wonderland blanketing the City outside and dreamt visions of glamour all the way home…

All images by ©2009 Vikram Pathak