Kaia Gerber walked the runway and brand ambassador Kendall Jenner sat front row at Longchamp's celebrity filled show Saturday, that included model Coco Rocha and actresses Ashley Benson and Storm Reid.

It was all about the boots and bags for the Paris fashion house where creative director Sophie Delafontaine sent models down the runway in uber shiny, patent leather knee-high boots in eye-catching red, green, yellow, silver and black, all adorned with silver balls and chains across the toe.

"I wanted to push a little bit more the Parisian vibe. I was happy to bring the femininity, but with a lot of character," Delafontaine said during a backstage interview.

The show featured bomber jackets with pronounced shearling collars and chunky knits over flowing, gauzy printed dresses.

Kaia Gerber, daughter of supermodel Cindy Crawford, walked the show in an olive green suede military style suit and cropped jacket with silver boots.

"It's amazing. It's so pretty," Gerber said of the collection during an interview backstage with The Associated Press.

Jenner, who didn't walk in the show, but sat front row dressed in black leather gaucho style shorts and tall black boots, said "I always have a (Longchamp) bag with me."

The brand revived the Roseau bag this year, updating it with larger, more modern portions, while keeping the bamboo hardware. Longchamp is known for its iconic nylon Le Pliage bag, which also featured heavily in the show, in various sizes from teeny tiny to oversized.

Delafontaine said she uses the arm candy "to finish the silhouette and give the attitude of strongness."

The collection also gave a nod to the athleisure trend with the sneaker boot, a cool black and white sneaker base with a sock-like texture that came to the knee.

"It's the shoes of our century, I think. I really wanted to have high boots in the collection because I wanted it to feel warm and confident, so the sneaker became a sneaker boot."

enner said being the face of Longchamp and several other major labels is "definitely a dream come true. These are designers and creatives that I've been seeing since I was born pretty much so to be a part of it, to see their creative process behind the scenes is really cool."

The model said she's fueled by the energy surrounding fashion week and especially enjoys travelling with her pals.

"It's like a little world tour I get to do with my friends because we all have similar jobs. We get to just hang out in different cities," Jenner said.

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Longtime fashion model Carolyn Murphy, who also walked in the show, described the collection as having "a modern folk vibe. I would steal a few pieces for sure."

Model Coco Rocha, who walked in Christian Siriano's show earlier this week, sat in the front row lamenting the future of fashion week.

"I feel like fashion is kind of transitioning into something else. I think in a few more years I don't know if we're going to have runways and fashion shows. I don't know if it's e-commerce and how online works and live streaming," she said. "This is the slowest it's ever been."

Monse founders Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia are stars in the fashion business — they're also the creatives behind Oscar de la Renta — but they see themselves as outsiders in the industry.

"We're not like mean people," Garcia told The Associated Press backstage after a runway show Friday for Monse's fall-winter 2020 collection.

"We're not like cool people," added Kim.

So when a mischievous rat character caught their eye in Wes Anderson's animated film "Fantastic Mr. Fox," they thought he was the perfect launch point for their new collection.

"He had a striped sweater on which we loved," Garcia said. "We love stripes."

The pair started to research punk, but as self-professed anti-cool kids decided to disrupt those concepts.

"It was kind of like doing (a) punk collection through an eye of someone who doesn't really know what it is," Kim said.

The collection mixed primary colors showcased on layers of heavy knits with both Scottish and '80s punk-grunge influences in plaid kilts and sweaters accessorized with combat style boots.

Other looks came in pops of animal print and the word "Monse" on shoes and some of the knits.

Kim and Garcia said they loved the idea of playing with textures, layering silk dresses and tops over silver sequins. They paired skirts, jackets and dresses with intricately beaded net stockings and sleeves. Many of the looks were adorned with safety pins — a punk staple — ranging in different sizes and shapes from tiny drop earrings to large clothing fasteners.

With the Oscars on Sunday, it was a busy time to prep for two fashion shows — de la Renta included — but Kim and Garcia said they were ready.

 "You just have to plan ahead," Garcia said. "So as long as you get your ducks in order you should be fine."

One celebrity they've dressed lately in Monse was best supporting actress nominee Florence Pugh, who turned heads at the Oscars nominees luncheon in an orange silk one-shoulder dress.

"When I heard the nominations and she was a part of that it was so exciting for me," Garcia said. "When Rebecca Corbin-Murray, her stylist, brought her to us one year ago, she was unknown. And the work that she has done in the last year or two has been possibly my favorite of the whole year so we were just really proud of the fact that she championed us early on, and now when she went to the Oscar luncheon she championed us one more time."

Country’s prolific visual artist Nazia Andaleed Preema performed her thematic visual art ‘Infinity’, as part of her solo exhibition PREEMA DONNA: An Infinite Journey on Saturday.

The exclusive performance took place at the Nalini Kanta Bhattasali Gallery of Bangladesh National Museum, being an intense performative collaboration between visual artists Nazia Andaleeb Preema, Founder, Performance Art Bangladesh and Francesca Carol Rolla (Venice), Performance Art Curator & Founder of Collective Signatures.

As part of the performance, Preema performed  including a special visual performance. It was performed on a stage named ‘Shahosh’, which featured a mirror on the floor reflecting a huge canvas placed against a wall.

The two hours long performance enthralled the visual art lovers, who also came as audiences at the exclusive solo exhibition.

The exhibition PREEMA DONNA: An Infinite Journey was inaugurated on February 2 at Bangladesh National Museum. State Minister for Cultural Affairs K M Khalid inaugurated the retrospective exhibition featuring Preema’s versatile works, with around 30 artworks, comprising mixed media canvases, art installations, video art pieces etc.

The inauguration also featured a launching ceremony of Preema’s book, Preema Donna – An Infinite Journey, published by Cosmos Books which was first unveiled at Dhaka Lit Fest 2019.

Vice-President of International Chambers of Commerce Bangladesh and Chairperson of Mediaworld Limited Rokia Afzal Rahman, Bengal Foundation Chairman Abul Khair, Ambassador of Norway to Bangladesh Sidsel Bleken, renowned artist Monirul Islam, University Grants Commission’s former Chairman Professor Nazrul Islam, Director General of Bangladesh National Museum Reaz Ahmed, among other special guests, attended the event which was presided over by Chairman of board of trustees of Bangladesh National Museum Professor Shamsuzzaman Khan.

Being the Director and Creative Editor of Bangladesh Brand Forum, Founder of Bangladesh Creative Forum and President of Women in Leadership- Nazia Andaleeb Preema is one of the leading visual artists of Bangladesh, portraying feminism in metaphorical sense through both traditional and digital art. She represented Bangladesh at the 58th Venice Biennale, Italy in 2019.

The two-week exhibition will continue till February 15 and is open for all.

The 5th edition of Dhaka Art Summit (DAS), known as South Asia’s biggest art and painting biennale exhibition, was inaugurated at the National Art Gallery of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy (BSA) on Friday.

State Minister for Cultural Affairs KM Khalid inaugurated the nine-day event. Dhaka Art Summit Organising Committee Chairman Farooq Sobhan and Co-Founder and Director of Samdani Art Foundation Nadia Samdani delivered welcome speeches at the ceremony, presided over by BSA Director General Liaquat Ali Lucky.

“The Dhaka Art Summit has provided an opportunity as a place of harmony by putting both international and Bangladeshi artists and their artworks on display under one roof, side by side. For building a global platform, I thank the organisers of this summit,” Khalid said.

Nadia Samdani said this year’s summit theme is ‘Seismic Movements’, where different artworks related to geological movements, colonial movements, independence movement, social movements are on display.

The opening day witnessed performance by Bangladeshi artist Ariful Kabir and live art by Otobong Enkangar apart from a panel discussion.

Photo: Adnan Adid/UNB

Performance action titled ‘Movimientos Emisores de Existencia’ under the direction of Hector Zamorah was displayed in the lobby of the first floor of the National Picture gallery. A puppet show for children titled ‘Golpo ta shobar’ by Gidori Bauli also took place on Friday.

The last performance of the opening day, ‘Together’, took place in the National Art Gallery performed by Arunaddhyachal and Alexix Vozia.

This edition of DAS is being billed as 'plastic-free’ and no air-conditioning is being used.

A special exhibition titled 'Lighting the Fire of Freedom Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’ is on display at the first floor of the Academy throughout the exhibition marking the birth centenary of Bangladesh’s founding father.

The exhibition is being held under the overall supervision of the Centre for Research and Information (CRI) with support from the Department of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy. A huge number of historical photographs of Bangabandhu are on display.

Along with 290 participating Bangladeshi artists, a total of 500 painters, sculptors, curators, art critics, art professionals, art collectors, architects and media personalities from 44 countries are scheduled to take part in the nine-day art extravaganza.

Photo: Adnan Adid/UNB

Biswajit Goswami is the curator of Bangladeshi artists at the summit. A special exhibition titled ‘Shekor’ will take place under the supervision of Goswami in this year's summit. The life and works of Joynul Abedin, SM Sultan and Kamrun Hasan and other painters who contributed a lot to the development of painting education is being highlighted through different arrangements.

Samdani Art Foundation Director Nadia is serving as the Chief Coordinator of the summit while Diana Campbell Betancourt, Artistic Director of the Samdani Art Foundation, is serving as Chief Curator of the team consisting of 32 curators from home and abroad.

The summit is supported by the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, in association with the Department of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Bangladesh Art Academy. Title sponsor of this year’s summit is Golden Harvest.

DAS-2020 is open for all till February 15, every day from 10am to 8pm.

The first-ever fundraising concert for establishing the permanent fund of the Liberation War Museum, Agargaon in the capital kicked off on Thursday.

The three-day concert, titled 'Freedom Music Fest', aims to build a permanent fund for the museum, which was built with the donation from local Bangladeshis.

Organisers said the festival is also marking the birth centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Maqsood O’ Dhaka, led by Bangladesh’s band icon Maqsoodul Haque, is coordinating the fest. Mobile financial service bKash is the digital partner of the fundraising venture.

A total of 20 popular bands of the country, including Bangla Five Band, AbantiSithi, MADOL, GaanKobi, Nemesis, NOVA, Meghdol, Sacrament, Chitkar, Shahed O’ Gaatch, Obscure, Renaissance, Shovvota & The Band, Sorol, Baul Xpress, Reshmi O Mati, Sahajia, Avash, Warfaze, and Maqsood O’ Dhaka, are taking part in the concert at the open-air theatre and main auditorium of the Liberation War Museum.

The music festival is open for all and fans can use the bKash app to buy outdoor tickets for Tk 300 and indoor tickets for Tk 1,000 each. Besides, interested donors can donate a minimum amount of Tk 100 to maximum Tk 10,000 directly to the museum fund by using the app.

On the first day, Bangla Five Band, AbantiSithi, MADOL, GaanKobi, Nemesis and NOVA performed at the open-air outdoor theatre from 2pm till 6pm.

Nemesis and NOVA then enthralled the audience at the indoor auditorium from 7pm to 10pm.

Meghdol, Sacrament, Chitkar, Shahed O’ Gaatch, Obscure and Renaissance are scheduled to perform on Friday.

The festival will conclude on Saturday.