Anita Dongre dress worn by Kate Middleton selling like hotcakes

Designer Anita Dongre’s website crashed after being swamped with requests for the dress worn by Kate Middleton during her India tour this week. The Jaipur-inspired tunic dress with floral motifs, worn by the Duchess when she played cricket at Oval Maidan in Mumbai, caught the attention of the world instantly, and women all over the world wanted to own one, leading to an internet frenzy.

According to reports, Kate’s team had contacted Anita Dongre months back, and they zeroed in on the Gulrukh tunic dress, as it is called, after going through a lookbook sent to them by the designer’s team.

The dress, in its original form, was actually a sharara, and was featured during the third day of Lakme Fashion Week earlier this month. It was Kate’s stylist Natasha Archer who improvised the outfit; she reduced its length, ditched the bottom, and converted the stole into a belt, customising it for the Duchess.

The outfit is now showcased on Anita Dongre’s website in the way it was worn by Kate, and is prized at $236.

Anita Dongre is the first Indian designer Kate wore in India. The veteran designer has many accolades to her name, and has been listed among the 50 most powerful businesswomen in India by Fortune magazine.

Incidentally, The Sun carried a story on the seamstress who made the now famous dress. Babita Sabath, who works in a garment factory in Navi Mumbai, earns less money a month than the price of the dress. Still, Babita has expressed her happiness that the dress has a lot of fans.

Image credit: AFP