Filmmaker-designer Karan Johar's prêt debut at the second day of the Van Heusen India Men's Week (VHIMW) was high on fashion quotient but unpredictably low on star appeal.

Inspired by the New York City, his collection called "The Magical Metropolis" was in collaboration with designer Varun Bahl.

Despite a full house, the show witnessed no showstoppers and no celebrities from the Hindi film fraternity either on the ramp or in the front row - unlike Karan's earlier event.

"Whenever it comes to Karan Johar, it is predictable to have a Bollywood celebrity as a showstopper. But the collection was unpredictable, so we thought of going the unpredictable way and have no showstoppers or no one on the front row too, " Karan, 38, told.

Known for making larger than life movies, Karan made sure the show started with an audio-visual that read "Dream as you'll live forever... Live as you'll die today" followed by a black and white montage from Hollywood movie "New York I Love You" on a varnished ramp.

"The ramp symbolizes the skyline of New York, " Bahl told.

But why New York?

"That's because I have been there and shot so many times in New York. There is a certain dichotomy about that city, so we came up with this idea, " Karan told.

Added Bahl: "And that's something that has not been done before."

The line voices the essence of urban edge with fabrics like linen, coated linen, denims, jerseys and cotton.

The models sported a "stern, languid, alert attitude so common to the city", said Bahl.

The colour palette was pleasing to the eye with ranges like white, black, ivory, grey, blue, khakis, cobalt, and pink -- not to mention tobacco tones. Sketches of hand-drawn scenes of New York looked elegant on embellished silhouettes of jackets, shirts, low crotch trousers and shorts.