NEEM Magazine

Engendered is blazing through the New York charity scene with what seems to be back-to-back high-profile events, ranging from the Rock for Rights arts festival to I VIEW, a star-studded film festival focused on gender equality. Engendered proved itself worthy of admiration yet again with another extravaganza event, Fashion Conscience 09, held at The Asia Society on Saturday, December 19, 2009. Engendered seeks to create awareness on gender and sexuality issues, analyzed through the prism of ritual, tradition and religion in South Asia. Fashion Conscience, while contrasting to Engendered’s previous events, captured the organization’s focus effortlessly, with a variety of notable designers exhibiting their brands on stage.

Executive Director Myna Mukherjee echoed Fashion Conscience 09′s mission as one that seeks to create social change to improve gender equality through fashion and art. The fashion designers who presented at the event were symbolic of that mission, with the clothing representing not only a diverse ethnic palette, but issues of violence, HIV/AIDS and gender identity issues as reflected by women. Each fashion exhibit was introduced by visually stunning performances, inspired by Sufi, Christian, Buddhist and Tantric traditions of South Asia.

The designers and personalities present at the show were:

· Manish Arora: named one of the top 10 designers at Paris Fashion Week 2009. Arora’s line will pay tribute to the spirit and resilience of AIDS victims. He is known for his psychedelic visuals and kitsch motifs in garments that combine traditional Indian designs with Western silhouettes. Arora is also known to break the Western barrier, having been invited to collaborate with Reebok and MAC to produce his line. An alumnus of the National Institute of Fashion Technology in New Delhi, Arora started his promising label in 1997.

· Zolaykha Sherzad: One of the most fascinating and riveting designers at Fashion Conscience 09, Sherzad is a native of war-torn Afghanistan and proved brilliant in her fashion exhibition. Recently profiled in Time Magazine, Sherzad is focused on promoting Afghanistan and its rich heritage through fashion and art. Her line is inspired by the Sufi tradition and its prayers, symbolizing hope for women who have survived displacement and violence. Her story is remarkable in itself. An architect trained at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, she fled Afghanistan in 1978. She returned 24 years later after the fall of the Taliban, only to focus her efforts on training the suppressed women of her country to design, sow and make patterns. She then launched Zarif, which means precious in the local language Dari. Merely a year later in 2005, she had her first fashion show. It was the first fashion show Afghanistan had witnessed in 30 years.

· Asher Jay: Making her fashion debut, Jay presented “Intromission,” a line she serialized through four series: Filling, Form, Function and Freedom. A Parsons designer who has worked with reputed fashion names such as Anna Sui, Anne Klein, and Ralph Lauren, her aesthetic is reminiscent of Eastern influences, including inspiration from the Indo-Tibetan goddes Kurukulla, who symbolizes the transformation of dualistic desire into non-dualistic desire.

· Amrita Singh: Contemporary and accessorized, Singh is one of New York’s leading South Asian designer who will showcase exquisite, sleek jewelry for the empowered woman. A graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology and the prestigious executive training program at Bergdorf Goodman, Singh has worked with world-renowned designers such as Oscar de la Renta and Christian Lacroix. Evidencing her meteoric rise, she has been nominated by Fashion Group International for the Rising Star Award from 2006 to 2008.

New York celebrities and personalities from the South Asian Diaspora attending Fashion Conscience 09 included Mira Nair and Manu Narayan of Bombay Dreams, with Narayan also taking part in the fashion show. Performances by classical and modern dancers of the acclaimed New York-based Nayikas.

** For more information on Engendered please visit: www.engendered.org/**

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