Mumbai - Now here's a sight you'd be hard-pressed see at a fashion show in Europe or New York: A parade of seventy-plus chiseled male models looking like warrior princes en route to a royal battle. Not only did the "boys," as they're called in Mumbai," display an air of confidence and swagger rare on Western runways, where sullen faces and pin-thin bodies are the aesthetic of choice for male models, but the sheer size of the group - most shows feature 25-30 separate models at most - was staggering, with just about every Indian supermodel on the bill.

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"I'll take one of everything," joked one international journalist as she left the venue, "and the clothes were nice, too!"

In Mumbai, however, this was pretty much the signal that Lakme Fashion Week had officially begun, with this fashion equivalent of a Bollywood musical, when Indian designer Arjun Khanna's show featured such a spectacle as part of his Spring/Summer '08 presentation Saturday evening, October 13.

Evoking the dress of the Yao people, who live in an area in southeast Asia known as the "Golden Triangle," where heavy herioin trafficking exists side by side with subsistence farmers and fisherman. Rich indigo cloth made into quilted jackets with embellished Nehru collars and sleeves and silk cord toggle closures, and simple wide leg trousers formed the basis of Khanna's collection. Despite its humble point of reference, Khanna's theatrical sensibility - he also sent out about 20 or so young boys onto the runway to feign eating bowls of rice, as well as a clown-like paparazzo who pretended to photograph models as they were sent down the runway - gave the show a regal stamp of distinction.

Yesterday marked the start of five days of fashion shows in Mumbai for Lakme Fashion Week, with a variety of designers whose collections provided a good overview of the general scope of the ready-to-wear industry in India with its overall East-meets-West sensibility. Designers like Nikasha Tawadey and Vikram Phadnis, two particular standouts from the first day, we could easily see selling in shops in New York, London or Paris. They mixed-and-matched traditional textiles, prints, embellishments and traditional Indian silhouettes - full skirts and trapeze tops from Rajasthan in Vikram Phadnis' case and billowy "Dongri" pants (think soft billowy folds that taper at the ankle) in Nikasha's collection - with a Western sensibility for a look that was fresh, modern and characteristically Indian but just as appealing to fashionistas elsewhere.

Established in 2001, Lakme Fashion Week (named for the Indian cosmetics brand, which is one of the sponsors), is the most high-profile of India's fashion weeks. (Another, India Fashion Week, is held in New Delhi and organized by the Fashion Design Council of India, a national organization whose mission is to support the expansion of the Indian ready-to-wear business).

Luxury fashion is a booming industry in India, and none more so than in Mumbai - or Bombay as many still call it - also the center of India's film industry, Bollywood, and at heart of the surge in the urge to spend on both local and international designer labels.

Recognizing that the numbers of people with disposable income to spend is on the rise in India, last month Conde Nast launched Vogue India, its Patrick Demarchelier-shot cover featuring Australian supermodel Gemma Ward and Bollywood actresses Bipasha Basu Priyanka Chopra and Preity Zinta and local supermodels MoniKangana Dutta and Laxmi Menon.

And as Lakme Fashion Week kicked off, Gucci - one Vogue India's major advertisers whose logo is certainly among the most familiar of the international designer brands that are in India - officially celebrated the opening of its latest boutique in Mumbai's Hilton Towers, sparing no expense on an exclusive party for the city's wealthiest and most plugged-in residents, who sipped champagne while nibbling on caviar and an Italian feast of caprese, prosciutto-wrapped figs, parmesan and penne, while deejays flown in just for the party from London pumped the crowd with underground dance tracks fit for a fashionable crowd in any corner of the globe. Was this Milan or Mumbai? In the land of luxury goods like Gucci, there appears to be no difference.