For a change ace designer Manish Malhotra was pandering to the style-conscious chatterati in Mumbai and not his Bollywood lovelies. Malhotra who is better known as the makeover king for such style icons as Urmila Matondkar and Karisma Kapoor, recently launched his pret collection to a select gathering.

Malhotra's collection, titled the Enchanted Ensemble, has been inspired by the Shakespearean comedy, A Midsummer Night's Dream. Malhotra, who isn't much of a reader, confessed that on a visit to London he came across some couplets from the comedy and was inspired to create the line. "I was charmed by the play's sense of whimsy and rhyme, of freedom and flowering. This collection comes with all the breeziness and romance of a Shakespearean work," he said.

Given the inspiration, Malhotra has steered clear of bold colours like black and red and opted for pastel shades like lilacs, lavenders, whites, creams, pink and lemon instead. These colours have been splashed on sensual crepes, georgettes, nets, silks, khadi and jute.

And most of the outfits have embellishments in the form of intricate chikan work, resham work, cut work and embroidered patches worked over with beads and iridescent sequins. Malhotra has put together short kurtas with stoles, hip-length tops, loose knit shirts, silk corsets and lycra trousers for women and kurtas, kurta shirts, full shirts, short shirts, jackets and drawstrings for men.

"This is the first time I have created a collection of such mammoth volume - a hundred outfits each for men and women," said Malhotra. Modelling the clothes at the launch were names like Waluscha D'Sousa, Reshma Bombaywalla and Tapur Chatterjee among others, and lending support to Malhotra were all his good friends from the upper echelons of Mumbai society.

Apart from the Bollywood brigade also present on the occasion was ace designer Hemant Trevedi - said to be Malhotra's arch rival - admiring the collection. With this collection Malhotra has managed to pull off a another makeover - his own - for there's nothing Bollywood about it.

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