MODELS kitted out with masks that look like horns, feline make-up and outlandish outfits... is this Indian fashion?

Judging by what was on display at the three recent trade fashion shows in India – the Wills Indian Fashion Week, Delhi Fashion Week and the Lakme Fashion Week – one could be forgiven for assuming that Indian fashion has moved beyond the traditional and the fusion.

Now it seems that Indian designers want to take on the world. And they want to do it by shocking fashion fans into eyeballing their wares.

Following the couture spectacle at the Wills Indian Fashion Week and Delhi Fashion Week by Rohit Bal and Manish Arora (one of his creations is seen on the right) few doubt that Indian designers are ready to compete with the West.

The New York Times reported that the three trade events “seek to demonstrate the preparedness of Indian designers to forgo the parochialism of the vast domestic market... to square off against competition from the West”.

The president of the Fashion Design Council of India Sunil Sethi said: “It’s taken some time, but we’re ready.”