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With a slip of a zip, models strutting the catwalk at Mumbai fashion week unveiled more than new clothes for next winter, creating a stir in traditionally conservative India.

A model at Mumbai fashion week
© AFP/File Sebastian D'Souza

Carol Gracias was the first to inadvertently show a bit of skin at Lakme Fashion Week in India's financial capital, Mumbai, when her bustier slipped, exposing her breasts and unleashing a flesh frenzy in the media.

Two days later another model, Gauhar Khan, exposed a hint of bare bottom after a zip broke on a black skirt designed by Lascelles Symmons, creating fresh waves of excitement.

While the two models had little in the way of coverage, the same could not be said for their catwalk mishaps.

The flashes of nudity earned pages of ink in the nation's print media, with analysis pieces on the state of the models' undress and the quality of the nation's fastenings.

Newspaper photographs blocked the sight of Gracias's breasts -- who reportedly broke down in tears later on -- and television networks obliged with fuzzy pictures.

Although the occasional flash of unintentional nudity is common at fashion shows, papers questioned whether designers had conspired to create a stir for the low-key style festival ahead of a rival event in New Delhi next week.

"I have been receiving more calls and answering more questions after my show this time, but don't you think it would be an extremely cheap publicity stunt to pull?" Symmons said, according to the Times of India.

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