With loads of music, dance and masti around, everyone was in high spirits. Some youngsters came dressed in their own creations, while others chose to don their friends' labels — but everyone was looking their stylist best. Short summery dresses ruled the night with PYTs choosing to flaunt their toned legs. Revelers took to the floor with gusto as the resident DJ pumped up the volume with some chartbusters.

While most fashion shows have you awaiting leggy lasses strutting their stuff, with perhaps the occasional male if required, this one certainly had it’s share of male Va-Va-Voom.It came as a surprise that the NIFT’s Department of Fashion and Lifestyle Accessories Showcase 2011 on Sunday evening was largely dominated by men’s bags, leather wallets, denim experiments and even handy duffel bags for the fashionable male voyageur. The focus of the four-year course for 22 young designers was on footwear and leather products.

In fact, there were quite a few lady designers that chose to theme collections exclusively for the opposite sex. Take Ansu John’s ‘The Everyday Man’ for instance, a collection of formal shoes and wallets for the corporate male or Sneha Agarwal’s classy business look in ‘Power Game’.Quite apparently, Chennai does have some scorching male talent on the ramp, and at the NIFT gala display, the graduating students had them in everything from beach shorts to aviator sunglasses.

Designer Amit Mishra certainly had the audience quite impressed with his vintage display of  bags for men in earthy tones.However, without a doubt, the ladies did have to carry off quite a lot, ranging from ethinic platform heels to brightly coloured doodle designed bags.A personal favourite of the evening was Shefali Dangwal’s ‘Tribula’ footwear, brightly embellished with patterns inspired by African tribes and Preethi R’s ‘Smart Cookie’ black and white checkered backpacks.
Another crowd pleaser was Siddhi S’  ‘Castle in Sky’ that was kicked off by three and five-year-olds walking the ramp, with their ‘fairytale shoes’ laced up to red shorts!It seems creativity has no boundaries with this bunch of eclectic student designers finding their muses far, wide and in between.