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Wills Lifestyle, ITC's premium fashion brand, today announced that Rohit Bal will be the designer for the Wills Lifestyle Grand Finale at the forthcoming Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week, India's only and the foremost fashion and trade event.

Wills Lifestyle further strengthens its association with the internationally acclaimed designer as this will be the second time that Rohit Bal is the Wills Lifestyle Grand Finale Designer. This season the two pioneers in fashion and luxury once again come together to set new benchmarks in creativity.

The grand finale collection is called 'Yasas' that is inspired by the resplendent glory of India's rich cultural heritage. The designer is set to bring alive his unique individual interpretation of splendour and grandeur of the Golden Peacock , a name once India was known by, the glamour and inherent luxury that India once was a part of. Rohit Bal will also create an exclusive collection for Wills Lifestyle that will be retailed from Wills Lifestyle stores across the country.

Announcing this at the Wills Lifestyle store, South Extension, Atul Chand, Divisional Chief Executive - ITC's Lifestyle Retailing Business Divison, said, "Wills Lifestyle Grand Finale has always set new benchmarks in creativity and has been a great mix of fashion and entertainment. This season one of India's most distinguished and celebrated fashion designers, Rohit Bal, will be taking the same tradition forward and will create magic on the ramp in his signature style.

He further added, "At Wills Lifestyle, we have embarked on the single largest corporate initiative of partnering with India's leading designers to retail their exclusive collections at our stores and making designer-wear accessible to our customers and thus furthering the agenda of promoting the business of fashion. This coming season, Rohit Bal will be designing an exclusive collection for Wills Lifestyle stores across the country."

Mr. Sunil Sethi, President, FDCI said, "We are delighted to have Rohit Bal as the Wills Lifestyle Grand Finale designer at the upcoming edition of the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week. Rohit has aptly been christened by Time magazine as the Master of Fabric and Fantasy. Style is his mantra and he is known for his sophisticated cuts and fabrics. Rohit is one of the most sought after designers in India and his creative mind gives a true bent of spirit in his work as well. WIFW SS 2010 will end on a high note with his selection as the Grand Finale designer."

Speaking on the occasion, Rohit Bal said, "It is wonderful to be back and in fact a great honor to be doing the grand finale at the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week once again. It is a perfect platform for me to show uninhibited creativity and express myself through a collection that transcends all seasons and reflects my sense of aesthetics without any constraints. It is really fashion for fashion sake. Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week has always played an important role in India's creative fashion success stories and I'm delighted to close the week once again."

The collection is based on craft and a blend of the old and the new and how the ancient Indian techniques can be a given a modern and contemporary feel. The embroideries are all hand done and each piece has taken months to create. There is a unique mix of fabrics which is unpredictable and whimsical. It embraces soft, unpretentious muslins with rich velvets and brocades, gentle and fluid shapes, free spirited and feminine. Going back and digging deep into the archives of ancient Indian costumes, pre Mughal and Mughal, the textiles, the colors and the embroideries are in fact a journey into the past of this magnificent culture. There is a serene purity in this collection; purity and tranquility of the handspun Mulmul and chanderi. The yards of fabric representing the sheer luxury of exquisite drapes and cascades of rich brocades are a definitive statement of a strong and intense Indian sensibility.