Tongues wagged. Eyebrows were raised. Call it voyeuristic, but everybody loves controversy. Everybody loves anything out of the ordinary.

The Lakme India Fashion Week 2003 had its quota of clock-stoppers too. rediff.com breezes through five key events last year:

The mother of all clock stoppers.

A designer's show is on.

Minutes after the models walk off the ramp, a model shrieks in despair, "I lost my dress!"

Someone does a two-plus-two and comes up with a smart 22, pointing out that the lost dress was seen on the slim frame of another model at the aforementioned designer's show.

Catch is: it wasn't that designer's creation, but another's.

How did one designer's outfit, from a model's private collection, come to be worn by another model at another designer's show?

The designer whose show it was: Krishna Mehta.

The model who lost her dress: Carol Gracias.

The designers who got free publicity for their outfit at another designer's show: Nikhil-Shantanu.

Confusion, confusion. As it happened, it was no espionage. It was simply a case of the missing dress. And a couple of not-so-alert designers and models.

ALSO SEE: 'This incident is very bizarre'

Text: Sita Menon
Photographs: Jewella C Miranda