Wavy haired, green eyed blondes pace a scarlet Parisian ramp for the classic 1962 French label Jean-Louis Scherrer. There's a surfeit of rock-chic-lingerie-like leather shorts, jagged satin-leather coats, jeans with rhinestone spangled fishnet panels as hip pockets. The end of parading sees none of the usual western designer suspects but our own Dilli di kudi, Ritu Beri. Draped in dapper black, waist encircled by models' anorexic arms, face wreathed in a triumphant smile, Beri acknowledges Scherrer's Fall/Winter 2002-2003 Ready to Wear Collection as her own. March 13, 2002 may well go down in Indian fashion history as the haloed day when for the first time, a desi fashionista designed and presented a collection for a renowned global label.

PLAUDITS

"She has won great honour by being selected as Scherrer designer." Tarun Tahiliani Fashion Designer

STRONG POINT: Beri has been at her best depicting traditional Indian wear (left) but lacks a distinctive style

Staking a formidable claim in the designer game of firsts, Beri was handpicked by sugar-daddy Mounir Moufarrige, chief executive of the recently formed France Luxury Group, to give Scherrer, the famed group's flagging classic house, a much-needed shot in the arm. As head of Ready to Wear at Scherrer which has a $75-million retail turnover, she will now work with French designer Stephane Rolland, who runs the house's haute couture division. "I've been brought in to infuse the kind of energy that will entice the young. It's like seeing an impossible dream come true," gushes an ecstatic Beri. "The opportunity to work for a renowned label doesn't usually come till the house needs a turnaround," she explains.

While Beri dares to compare her appointment with those of celebrities John Galliano and Stella McCartney at famed Dior and Chloe, it is hard to overlook the lukewarm response her work has evoked. Suzy Menkes of the International Herald Tribune panned Beri's designs as being nowhere close to chic. Another Parisian critic referred to her collection as "middle of the road hip" and "disappointing".

"It's difficult to please everyone," defends Beri, "so I just did what I enjoy doing." The fact, however, is that Beri's earlier Parisian collections were appreciated mostly because of the Indie-motifs and designs, wide palette of colours and handcrafted work that was welcomed as a quaint change. But an Indian's sudden plunge into something that the West already has had plenty of-boned corsets lined with fur, black trench coats, rhinestone motifs-didn't quite enthuse the critics. While Scherrer is supposed to have been "slightly bittersweet with a strong element of fantasy", Beri's take on feminine mysteriousness in the collection she calls "She" didn't quite work.

BRICKBATS

"Has she landed the deal because of her PR drive and Moufarrige connection?" Hemant Sagar Paris-based Designer

UNEASY TRANSITION: Beri's shift from Indian to western style has not impressed foreign critics

The criticism is contrary to her reputation in France, where she is known as the Indian designer who generates $4.5 million (Rs 21.6 crore) in annual sales and has been lauded for her showings at Paris. The reproof, however, is in consonance with the evaluation of her work in India. "You can easily make out when someone's donning a Rohit Bal. Even younger designers like Savio Jon have a distinctive style but you can never really make out a Beri. Anyway, I don't see too many in high society wearing her designs," insists the proprietor of a hi-fashion Mumbai store. Onlookers at Beri's Spring-Summer 2001 L'Oreal-sponsored Tiara Memoirs show in Delhi even compared her glitzy designs to "Barbie doll clothes".

Beri sells in India mostly through her own stores and not through bigger fashion stores like Mumbai's Ensemble or Delhi's Karma, with the bulk of her buyers belonging to the rich NRI section that might have heard of her much publicised name abroad. In fact, her original label Lavanya was targeted mainly at the popular, and perhaps the easiest to cater to, designer audience-brides. Ornate lehngas and shimmering churidars still drive Beri's sales in India but her work also seems to have acquired some finesse, as it were, since her Paris romance began about four years ago. Some of her pret lines for her own label at Paris in 2000 and 2001 have included appreciable leather creations and the B6Y (Be Sexy or Beri Sexy) RTW Spring-Summer Collection for 2002 in Paris had well-crafted denim and chiffon.

Senior Indian designers like Tarun Tahiliani concede that Beri has achieved a "great honour", with younger designers like Aki Narula even more appreciative, "I think designing for a Parisian label is remarkable." There are others who do not consider Beri's achievement quite as pathbreaking. Says a dismissive Ritu Kumar, who has cashed in on the international love for Indian textiles since the 1970s export boom: "Scherrer is just one among the many Parisian brands." She also points out that several Indian designers had made considerable inroads in the West much before Beri. India-born, Paris-based designer Hemant Sagar is one such whose joint label with Frenchman Lecoanet has seen his work in European markets for about 20 years now. Sagar suggests Beri's deal may have been a way of giving her some badly needed global exposure to benefit her own label which isn't quite happening currently. "Has she landed this deal because of her public-relations drive and connection with Moufarrige or because of her creativity?" he asks pointedly.

Dilip Cherian, who heads Beri's image-management agency Perfect Relations, may not have the answer for Sagar's query but attributes Beri's global success to two factors. One, she is "younger than many other established Indian designers", and second, she is "extremely presentable". While defending his decision to promote her label Moufarrige also admitted that her "movie star looks" enhanced her marketability. If it is Moufarrige in France, in India it is the formidable support of liquor baron Vijay Mallya of the United Breweries Group that sponsored her glamorous Diva presentation at the Haute Couture Week in Paris last July.

In her early 30s, the soft-spoken designer has the time for taking risks, a supportive family that is involved in her business and most significantly, a ruthless ambition to acquire global fame. And clued as she is into the dynamics of international marketing she seems to understand that being "known" over a longer period of time might obliterate the effect of average sales or criticism.

Still, her role as a designer for a flagging Parisian label means that she has a tough task ahead of her, made the more trickier because of her Indianness. Indian designers abroad are caught in a Catch-22 situation that is coloured by western perception. If they don't cash in on India's "lush colour and texture" they are likely to be censured for abandoning their heritage, but if the creations are overtly Indian they are targeted for failing to adapt their Indianness to suit the western palate.

Last year, Beri pronounced that her label would win global acclaim "within five years". Though the promise seems far-fetched, her appointment as a Scherrer designer has made one thing abundantly clear: Beri is wielding the right tools in her effort to crack a difficult code.