Winners of the 2014 FDCI elections

Ashish Soni, Namrata Joshipura, Payal Jain and Samant Chauhan among new inductees; Rohit Bal, JJ Valaya, Rohit Gandhi re-elected; Manish Malhotra, Leena Singh, Rina Dhaka and Wendell fail to get in.
Once every three years, there’s a new kind of show in the Delhi fashion circuit that everybody watches out for, but it’s not about the clothes on the ramp. The elections to the Board of the Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI), held once every three years, bring to the fore the politics, the lobbying, the juicy gossip and power play among the very visible and glamorous design fraternity.The last elections were held in 2011, the first ones after the public and headline-grabbing split (and then surrender) of a faction from the FDCI, and were therefore even more keenly watched to see who gets re-inducted and who gets left out in the cold.
This year’s election results were not less keenly anticipated, though. They were announced at 8pm on Saturday night (see box for this year’s list of winners), and quickly became the primary talking point at Payal Jain’s fashion show a little over an hour later, where most of the city’s designers turned up. Among the surprise upsets is Manish Malhotra, who, despite not being on the last board, was not expected to not be elected, since he was one of the bigger names contesting, and has tried to make his presence felt more strongly outside of Mumbai, especially in Delhi, in the recent past. Leena Singh from the Ashima-Leena duo was also among the surprise losers of the fashion industry’s electoral battle. Payal herself was congratulated that evening as much for her show as for finding a place on the board this year.
Among those who’ve retained their positions as FDCI’s Fellow Members are David Abraham, Rohit Bal, JJ Valaya, Rohit Gandhi and Anju Modi. Those who’ve retained their positions as Associate Members are Abhishek Gupta, Gautam Rakha and Poonam Bhagat. The new Fellow Members are Ashish N Soni (a former FDCI president), Namrata Joshipura (an Associate Member last year) and Payal; the new Associate Members are Pankaj Ahuja, Reynu Taandon, Gaurav Gupta, Aneeth Arora and Samant Chauhan. Those who were on the last Board and aren’t on this one are Suneet Varma, Tarun Tahiliani, Wendell Rodricks, Rajesh Pratap Singh, Varun Bahl, Niki Mahajan and Paras Bairoliya.
Of these, only Wendell contested this time around. At the party on Saturday night, things moved quickly from hush-hush discussions about possible results doing the rounds on messages to official congratulatory hugs and kisses, after FDCI president Sunil Sethi arrived and introduced each of the new appointees. Besides the comments on who made it, there were also quieter discussions about who didn’t, some with a tone of sadness in them – ‘Aww she (Rina Dhaka) didn’t. I really wanted her to,’ was among what we overheard, as also, ‘Itni campaigning ka koi fayda nahin hua unhe (about Leena).’
Winners of the 2014 FDCI elections
Fellow members
- David Abraham
- Rohit Bal
- Ashish Soni
- JJ Valaya
- Rohit Gandhi
- Namrata Joshipura
- Payal Jain
- Anju Modi
Associate Members
- Pankaj Ahuja
- Abhishek Gupta
- Gautam Rakha
- Reynu Taandon
- Gaurav Gupta
- Aneeth Arora
- Poonam Bhagat
- Samant Chauhan
Among the bigger names who contested and lost were Manish Malhotra, Leena Singh, Rina Dhaka and Wendell Rodricks, who’s ended one term on the board. Those who didn’t contest this year include Suneet Varma, TT, Rajesh Pratap Singh, Varun Bahl, Niki Mahajan and Paras Bairoliya.