Star dresser launches pret

Fashion designer Manish Malhotra [ Images ] is the man of the season. The star designer, whose classic touch helped revive the looks and careers of actors such as Urmila Matondkar [ Images ] and Karishma Kapoor [ Images ], launched his pret line under the Manish Malhotra label at Shlok, the one-stop shop for designer wear in Mumbai [ Images ].

The store, promoted by Cinevista's Sidharth Malhotra, has individual racks reserved for designers such as Rohit Bal, Malini Ramani and Sabyasachi Mukherjee [ Images ] to showcase their collection.

By all accounts, Manish Malhotra got a staggering response to his line. The first lot of 150 garments from the designer sold out in less than a week at Shlok. Better still, orders have been placed for many more: almost five times that number, the designer admits.

Says Sidharth Malhotra, "After all, who wouldn't want to don a Shahrukh Khan [ Images ] shirt created by his very own designer? Besides, a Manish Malhotra designer shirt is priced at about Rs 1,800, which is quite often less than the price people pay to buy a 'non-designer' shirt at a high-end store."

Very soon Shlok will be setting up shops in Delhi [ Images ] and Bangalore, and Manish Malhotra hopes to move to at least two more such outlets in Mumbai by the year-end.

"I would love to go to other cities, but as of now my film is keeping me busy," says the designer, who is now getting into making films. His musical hits the floors this December, for a winter 2005 release.

Malhotra's association with the film industry has been long. He started off with dressing up Sridevi [ Images ], and considers her his mentor. Life in the film industry was the usual ordeal -- scrounging for work and watching cheques bounce.

Then Urmila Matondkar and Ram Gopal Varma's [ Images ] Rangeela [ Images ] happened. Later, he gave Sridevi the modern look in Mahesh Bhatt's [ Images ] Gumraah, and created dresses for Karishma Kapoor in Raja Hindustani [ Images ].

Gradually, his designer wear started becoming popular in tinsel town. For sometime he was also the designer for stores like Avanti Birla's Reverie. Of course, now his energies are focused on his debut as a filmmaker.

"The script is finalised," he says adding that the desi Dirty Dancing kind of film, will be a multi-starrer (he hopes to sign on Hrithik Roshan [ Images ] or Shahid Kapoor [ Images ]). "I expect to start shooting end of December, once the star dates are finalised, and release it next winter."