A design created by Verma D’Mello went through the hands of young girls at Dabel in Cotigao,
where they delicately applied embellishments and appliqué before the garment
was worn by celebrities at the Cannes Film and Fashion Festival. This was the
beginning of a wondrous journey of empowerment for these village girls, who are
surviving in the remote village without proper electricity and water. Verma has
been in the fashion industry for over two decades. Noted for her bridal wear in
Goa, she has been presenting her collections at the Cannes Film and Fashion
Festival for four consecutive years. This year she was awarded the ‘Best
Red-Carpet Designer’. She received the award from Hollywood actress Amber
Martnez, who also wore Verma’s creation.
Based on the theme of ‘I am Ganga, a woman
of today’ to highlight India’s sacred river, the Ganga, Verma has been working
on the collection since December. “We designed 78 garments, from which, 30 were
shortlisted and the selected miniatures were sent to Cannes for approval. The
designs had to be chic to appeal to the classy audience at Cannes. They sent 15
designs that were the final shortlist for the runway. The invitees included
actors, bloggers and critics,” says Verma, whose designs at Cannes were donned
by celebrities such as Amber Martinez, Alixzandra Dove, Aurelia Khazan, Apple
Yang, Carrie Bernans, Anjelina Kali and François Durpaire.
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Verma was the opening show for the fashion
show and the only Indian among five other international designers. As the
models were walking the runway, they were accompanied by the sweet voice of
MaryJo De Mello, who sang in English, French and Portuguese. “Last year, MaryJo
had composed a French song, ‘Maria’, for my fashion show at Cannes; the song
was based on the theme of the event, which was ‘Lift The Lid Off Child Sex
Trade’. However, due to bad weather, the venue at Cannes had to be changed and
I felt the song was not given its due. This year, though the organisers were
insisting on a renowned opera singer from France, I convinced them to invite
MaryJo to perform for the show,” reveals Verma.
MaryJo has been in the music industry since the age of 15 and
has won the Rotary Lifetime Achievement Award for being the youngest child
artiste to release an album in different languages, when she released her first
album at 17. She has performed with different bands but now performs as a solo
artiste. “I feel extremely privileged to have been given this opportunity to perform
for the 72nd Cannes Fashion and Film Awards. It was a great honour to have been
invited personally to a festival of this calibre. As it is an invitation only
event that has been attracting the best of the best for so many decades, it was
absolutely overwhelming and surreal to stand and sing in front of celebrities
who I have only seen on screen before. It was nerve-racking and thrilling at
the same time and I’m very happy that it all went well without a hitch,” says
MaryJo.
She adds, “Verma has been an absolute joy to work with and I am
extremely delighted that she extended her invitation to me to be a part of her
campaign to make the world a better place. It has been a great honour to have
worked with her this year. I’ve worked on the song ‘Thread’s Up’ for over a
year and worked on fine tuning the song for the last few months leading up to
the festival. It was a bit of a challenge to put together the right combination
of lyrics and music to get the right message across. The main focus was to be
able to successfully portray the plight of underprivileged women and work on
their upliftment. It was very satisfying to be able to get that message across
to the world.” The song is available on various online streaming platforms such
as Spotify, YouTube music, Amazon, iTunes, etc.
MaryJo is currently working on a few original pieces and looks
forward to collaborating with international artistes. “My exposure at Cannes
has given me quite a few opportunities and I look forward to these in the
coming months,” she says.
Originally
from Orlim, Verma has adopted the village of Dabel in Cotigao and is now
planning to adopt Ambeli in Quepem. “I have adopted the village by empowering
the girls and women. They have no proper water supply or electricity and since
the raw materials are required, we have a partnership with Goa Sudharop, a
California-based sustainable development non-profit organisation. I do the
designing and stitching at the studio and the girls do the embellishing and
appliqué work for the garments. They are really proud that their works have
reached France,” says Verma.
