It was during fashion legend and couturier Suneet Varma's couture show in 2013 to celebrate 50 years of Judith Leiber (a luxury bag label collaboration) at Delhi's swanky DLF Emporio mall, that i had my first masterclass with the reigning queens of fashion choreography, Aparna Bahl, Tania LeFebvre and Anisha Bahl ... together known as the legendary Preferred Professionals !! ...... There is hardly anyone in the Indian fashion industry that do not know or know about these incredible girls !! .... Consider this .... they have existed as a company for the last 17 years .... almost two decades ... the youngest one of us in DSB is a 20 year old .... which means Aanchal was a 3 year old toddler when Aparna and Tanya set up their business .... prior to that Tania was an established model most famous for the Rayban ads of the nineties .... Aparna was a reputed make up artist ... and Anisha, the kid sister of Aparna, was a college kid with a tape recorder and the knowledge of using a pencil to fix a tape whose reel would get stuck in the player head .... real urban cool people in the nineties India !! ... To have an idea of what the fashion industry was during that time read this excellent article which quotes Suneet Varma and Sunil Sethi, the chief of Fashion Design Council of India.

Anisha Bahl, Aparna Bahl Bedi, Tania LeFebvre, Preferred Professionals

After that March 2013 Fashion Week, i hunted every article i could find on the net about fashion choreographers in India and Aparna, Tania and Anisha in particular .... Sadly, our Indian fashion industry do not seem particularly interested in profiling the people behind the spectacular fashion events that happen here ... at least digitally, there is hardly any archival or personal accounts about these creatives of fashion !! ... Most Indian designers do not even credit them in their official press releases post fashion shows, except a rare handful of the top couturiers ..... yet a fashion choreographer in India is so much more than just a job description .... they are full time production houses that maintain their own galaxy of stylists, scenographers, make up and hair artists, set lighting designers, image consultants and model groomers ..... choreographing a show is just a minute part of that entire production !! .... As i became more friendly with the girls while attending fashion and couture events in Delhi, they became a very invaluable resource for us, regarding information about production, backstage and designer fittings .... It was over an informal brunch one day recently that i thought about blogging about this beautiful educational journey they are continually giving us DSB girls .... Tania (Indian Canadian by birth), who lives in Bhutan had come down to Delhi for a few days, Aparna and Anisha were leaving in a week for their annual 2 month vacation (its always Goa for the sisters in the winter :) .... and we decided to meet up for lunch at Tres, Lodhi Colony .... The sun was out and we had an impromptu photo session in the park .... i am glad we did, at least we have some pics for this post :) ..... The conversation was scintillating as only happens when fashion mad people are also equally food mad people haha !! .... We harassed the girls about their permanently under construction website .... they protested about having no time .... we persisted about the importance of having their digital footprints in social media .... they retorted "You girls are the new age media, you do your thing and we do ours " ... Touche !! Haha !! So right they were, so here it is Apu, Tania and Anisha .... here's to looking at you wonderful girls !!

The above vid is from Couturier Suneet Varma's YouTube Channel ... Preferred Professionals produced this show and many of Suneet's high profile friends including designer pal Ravi Bajaj sang live (as seen above) and the show was opened by his mega industrialist friend Ajay Bijli again singing live ... it was phenomenal !! ... The vid would give you a good idea of the level of production Aparna, Tania and Anisha are capable of .... Infact it was during this show, that i got a rare chance of sitting next to Anisha in the photographers pit and getting a masterclass in production !! ... Aparna was in the lighting and music control box overhead and Anisha was taking care of ground control .... A very very VIP guest of Suneet, Fashion Legend Anju Modi had arrived late for seating, the lights were already dimmed for the show to begin, and it was too late to search for seat placements in  the dark ... Anisha being the quick thinker that she is, seated Suneet's guest in the best seat of any fashion show, the ultra exclusive photographers pit ... haha ... there we were ... Anisha next to me, had to keep Anju Ma'am company, and we three had a gala time enjoying Suneet's show from the best perch that evening !!! ... See the pics below to enjoy the birds eye view of a choreographers attention to detail :)

The crinkled fabric background of the set was the perfect foil to the 70's inspired romance of Suneet's collection .

Suneet Varma is one of India's most formidable creative powerhouse, fortunately i am privileged to count him as a mentor  ... i asked Suneet for a quote about the girls .... he is travelling today and not in town .... still he took out precious minutes from his busy schedule to say this about Preferred Professionals :)

" The girls have been in this industry for a decade and a half .... they are someone who gets my sensibility .... they have always delivered more than i expect .... they understand my inspirations .... they are honed into how i want a presentation precisely so ... If i feel strongly about something, i can tell them that, and so can they .... its a very healthy professional relationship ... i cherish that " 

- Suneet Varma

No doubt some of our most popular posts in our top 10 posts are productions of these 3 superwomen ... you can read about them here :

Suneet Varma : The Golden Bracelet

JJ Valaya : The Maharaja of Madrid 

Shantanu Nikhil : To Die For

Rohit Bal : The Mulmul Masquerade

Hope you enjoyed our post, until next time :)

DSB