Adi Godrej strutting on the catwalk in a cream suit by Arjun Khanna, with a huge grin on his face, created quite a stir. Kalpana Morparia in flowing black Wendell Rodricks, nodded discreetly at cheering whistles and Meera Sanyal in gold-bordered Sabyasachi Mukherji, took the swish of the fabric elegantly in her stride. As Amrapali jewels sparkled on the runway and champagne flutes below it, forty other boardroom biggies stepped down the corporate ladder and onto the fashion ramp with sporting grace under gentle pressure from the Toofles Foundation that raises funds for the underprivileged. The Style for Smiles housefull show at the Taj Mahal Hotel, had family and friends rooting for the big bosses as each one walked in custom-made designer wear for their favourite charity. There was Manisha Girotra of UBS India and Prasoon Joshi of McCann Erickson; V N Dhoot of Videocon and the dapper Piyush Pandey of O&M blowing kisses to sister Ila Arun in the audience. Verve, media sponsor for the event, was represented by two worthy gentlemen: Zhooben Bhiwandiwala, director, in a natty Narendra Kumar and Verve’s man of the month, actor Kunal Kapoor, flaunting a brilliant TAG Heuer.

The evening expertly put together by Toofles prime mover Madhabi Puri-Buch of ICICI Securities and partnered by Jean-Christophe Babin, President and CEO, TAG Heuer, (in a Narendra Kumar embroidered jacket no less) had a few more surprises in store. Following a brief, impactful fashion show where professional models (no waving and smiling here, certainly no stripping off jackets,Vaidyanathan V style) flashed the luxury watch collection, the ever debonair Shah Rukh Khan, brand ambassador of TAG Heuer for the ninth year, made a gape-worthy appearance and a peppered with humour speech.

Lots of hugs, signatures scrawled on a mega board and handshakes later, the large group on the stage celebrated the joy of giving with plenty of joie de vivre!

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