Shantanu Goenka with guests at Art and Design Show on Saturday; (top) home decor pieces on display from Hugli. Pictures by Bishwarup Dutta

Eight fashion designers, eight artists, four jewellery houses, three lifestyle stores and an accessory designer. In its debut edition, the Art and Design Show organised by Canvas Unlimited brought them all to the Hyatt Regency Calcutta ballroom on Saturday.

And the city sat up and took note, loosened its purse strings and shopped and shopped. Only this time it was for a cause — all benefits from the daylong exhibition went to the Friends of Tribal Society, striving to make a difference to the lives of eight crore tribal citizens of the country.

Even before it was time for the exhibition to get underway and while the stalls were still being set up, women in their designer finery (georgettes with heavy zardosi work), blow-dried hair and perfect pout queued up to choose and pick the best items.

The day’s proceedings began with an auction of various items donated by the exhibitors. So while there was a white cutwork salwar kameez by Rohit Bal tagged at Rs 10,000, there was also a blue vase from Hugli with a minimum bid amount of Rs 3,000.

A black shirt with white threadwork from H2O (Rohit Gandhi and Rahul Khanna) at Rs 1,500 and an embroidered clutch purse from Bea Accessories for Rs 2,000 were placed alongside a bright orange embroidered sari from Payal Singhal for Rs 8,000.

Bidders picked up small cards and jotted down their bid amounts alongside the product codes. Two hours later, when bidding was closed, the highest bidders picked up their respective prized possessions and donated the entire amount to charity. A hundred bids from about 15 bidders were placed during the two hours.

A Sekhar Roy painting with a minimum bid amount of Rs 5,000 was lapped up for Rs 20,000. Shantanu Goenka’s blue empire-line dress with a bag went for Rs 15,300 while Rohit Bal’s salwar kameez managed to raise Rs 18,000. Alka Javeri’s jadau bangle (Rs 7,000) earned a highest bid of Rs 19,000 and Asit Sarkar’s painting (Rs 7,000) went for Rs 11,111.

Pick and choose

Auction over, the focus shifted to the exhibition. As the day wore on, ladies flocked to the venue, exchanged pleasantries, compared notes, placed orders and also bought some. The jewellery houses made brisk business all day as crowds simply refused to move away from their stalls. Nemichand Bamalwa and Sons had diamond and jadau ornaments ranging from Rs 8 lakh to Rs 50 lakh. Falguni Mehta and Alka Javeri exhibited a lot of diamonds and coloured stones, both precious and semi-precious. Abhishek Haritwal from Jaipur-based Haritsons lined up an eclectic range of costume jewellery, coloured stones and jewels set in silver alongside gold and silver fabric ornaments, priced at Rs 4,000-plus. Shantanu Goenka and Anjalee Kapoor of Surya Design Line also presented some jewellery, besides their garments.

Bea Accessories had a wide range of bags — from chic clutches and batuas to trendy totes — in white, aquamarine and metallic shades, priced between Rs 1,200 and Rs 3,500. While Kaadamb had wooden showpieces and home decor items, Delhi-based Emblem showcased a line of soft furnishings. City lifestyle store Hugli had an extensive array of products — from glass flower vases to marble dinner plates, from wooden photo frames to jute bags.

An entire section was devoted to paintings and sketches — Ananta Mandal’s cityscapes and Sekhar Roy’s Radha-Krishnas shared space with Asit Sarkar, Subroto Sen, Bibekananda Santra, Sudipta Tewari, Avisankar Mitra and Saikat Patra.

Fashion flair

Last but not the least, there was fashion and that too in generous doses.

Anita Dongre in pristine white made her presence felt in the morning. Tunics, tops, salwar kameez and skirts comprised the mainstay of the 70-odd items she had flown down with, but to her disappointment, the western wear didn’t find many takers. “Calcutta women are quite conservative in their tastes,” rued Anita.

Possibly why Rohit Gandhi and Rahul Khanna did not bring their women’s wear label Cue to the exhibition at all. A single white and plenty of black, blue and dark brown shirts from H2O priced between Rs 1,950 and Rs 4,200 filled the racks.

Shantanu Goenka presented his trademark heavily-embroidered lehngas along with a few saris and salwar kameezes.

Rohit Bal had 60-odd salwar suits, nearly 50 shirts and two lehngas. A maroon lehnga teamed with a corset with intricate zardosi and sequin work, tagged at Rs 5,65,990, failed to attract buyers.

To the surprise of many in the crowd, a few hours before the end of the event, Rohit announced a 30 per cent discount on all his items.

“The Art and Design Show has been a success and all the exhibitors are willing to be part of the event next year, too,” said Sweta Tantia from Canvas Unlimited.

Rohit Bal with his golden mane and Aviator shades was undoubtedly the star attraction.

While Tanusree Shankar dropped by in the morning, former Sananda Tilottama Jyoti Brahmin was seen shopping around later in the day.

Winner of the day: City designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee, for donating 10 items from his collection. His stall was empty before noon.