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Fashion swings

Fashion trends move from couture to prêt as designers wisen up to the markets, says HEMANGINI GUPTA

Pret sets the ramp on fire — Photo: Murali Kumar K.

"IT'S LIKE being married to two women," says designer Suneet Verma. "My couture set up is just down the road from Le Spice, my prêt line. But everything is separate. Sometimes the people in one set up don't even meet the people in the other." Suneet Verma is not the only couture designer to suddenly, and quite firmly, begin embracing prêt.

Abu Jani-Sandeep Khosla — costume designers for Sanjay Leela Bhansali's extravagant Devdaas and famed for their revival of traditional Indian embellishment work in contemporary fashion — are synonymous with decadent, indulgent high fashion. Dame Judi Dench's costumes for the Oscars, regular fittings for regal beauty Dimple Kapadia, clothes for the Big B's 62nd birthday... Yet, when this exclusive label finally deigned to open its doors in Bangalore, the first shelf stocked their prêt wear. Prêt wear? The duo insist this was not an anomaly, and they are as comfortable doing the frolicking, fun clothes lining their prêt racks as they are creating the exquisite chikan and zardosi, which is their trademark. Brothers Nikhil-Shantanu, who began designing with Indian ethnic wear, also recently turned to prêt. When what he's most comfortable designing, Nikhil replies instantly: "Pret. Western prêt."

No surprises then that when Bollywood's favourite designer Manish Malhotra launched his prêt label at Evoluzione, the store was packed with not just Page 3 socialites, but regular middle-class buyers as well. Significantly, his prêt label precedes his entry into couture.

Market diktat

Nikhil Mehra, the creative component of Nikhil-Shantanu, declares: "The market is seeping in." At the preview of his collection of nightclub wear, he points out that the booming market for the young, fashion conscious buyer is growing, forcing designers to sit up and notice them.

He says that his other half, the marketing brain Shantanu, only recently decided that they were ready to launch into prêt. "We had to be commercially very strong," says Nikhil, "if there's a high demand we have to be able to supply. We want the market to grow and there's a large, new market in India."

This market is being given a new respect with designer stalwarts such as Suneet Verma, an internationally recognised name in haute couture.

"At the Milan Fashion week showcasing couture, the shows ran in alphabetical order. So I showed right after Valentino and Versace," Verma says, proudly. Yet, this ace designer, fond of "Raphael, the classics, beautiful women" and self confessedly old-fashioned, launched his prêt line, Le Spice, last year. "I live for couture," he confesses, admitting that Le Spice (beginning from as low as Rs. 500) is obviously "ironic" and purely a hard headed marketing decision. Described as "sexy, young, spicy, inexpensive" Le Spice will retail in some 32 outlets across the world, assuming that its clean, colourful, good-looking lines will find buyers anywhere.

Western trend

Designers can't survive on couture, agrees fashion guru Prasad Bidappa. "There's no money in couture which only a miniscule percentage of women can afford," he says. "Even big designers such as Armani and Versace have turned to prêt to survive and Indian designers have caught on to this trend late in the day, only over the last two years." He points to Ritu Beri, Tarun Tahiliani, Rohit Bal and Suneet Verma as recent examples, adding that even market heavyweights Armani retail prêt at Armani Exchange and have separate outlets for their couture. "They're two completely separate things," says Bidappa about the prêt and couture which designers have begun to straddle determinedly. "One doesn't have to do with the other."

Yashodhara Shroff, owner of the designer boutique Ffolio, adds that globalisation is affecting the Indian market.

Like in the west, the Indian market is getting more mature, middle class awareness is huge and market segmentations are becoming clearer, she says.

"A label such as Armani has four lines," Shroff points out, "and the Indian market may also soon get similarly segmented. Designers could have more than just a prêt and couture line as they get into sports wear or corporate wear, for example," she says. There are some grey areas right now, she admits, as designers, retailers and customers find their feet in a young market.

New avatar

This multiple existence is a new experience for old hands in Indian couture and Suneet Verma, for one, is still coming to terms with his recent foray into prêt. "At a recent event, I found some 10-12 women in the audience wearing Le Spice clothes. I thought it was a marketing gimmick by the organisers till I realised people I didn't know were buying my clothes. This would never happen with couture where you know all your clients."

Designers have to shed their egos and open up to buyers if they want to survive. Verma puts it aptly: "I love the classics... but I also love the future."

And so hitherto exclusive designers, humbled market realities, are looking ahead.

They are putting their money and resources firmly where the market is, embracing ready-to-wear and affordable prêt as the universal flavour of all seasons.

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