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The revelry begins fashion
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The Lakme India Fashion Week, the synergy of fashion and fun opens this Wednesday. A report by ANUJ KUMAR
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If you are not seen at the Week, you are assumed dead: Deepika Govind
COMING OUT OF THE SHADOWS: Indian fashion has made it to the world stage courtesy LIFW. Here is a model in Raghavendra Rathore's creation Photo: Rajeev Bhatt
Again that time of the year has come when business and fun swap places for a week. As the Sixth Lakme India Fashion Week opens at The Grand in New Delhi this Wednesday, numbers reveal that the fashion industry is growing and the Week has become a window to Indian fashion. Sixty-one designers, 39 fashion shows, 70 designer stalls, 60 international buyers, 90 domestic buyers, nine sponsors and panel discussion at 10 a.m., the fashion fiesta has apparently everything going for it. The term `corporatised' fashion looks a reality.
Lift the curtain and the figure looks a bit bloated. Designer-wear remains 0.2 percent of the Indian apparel market. The largest designer in the country has a sales turnover of Rs.25 crore. "Designers can never work in the 10 to 6 kind of format. So corporatisation of fashion remains a farce. Turnovers are still high but what about the margins? Most are just surviving," says designer Raghavendra Rathore.
Week value
So what's the utility of the Week? To some like Deepika Govind - spending around eight lakh rupees - it is just a way to get noticed by the national media. "Media may not know much about fashion, but somehow if you are not on the tube during the Week, you are assumed to be dead. As for business, I got my buyers from Hong Kong Fashion Week and Exhibition," says Deepika. To others like Paras and Shalini of Geisha Designs, the Week is responsible for whatever business they have. "The Fashion Design Council of India has definitely given fashion a serious look. This time we have been provided with the buyer list, their turnover and how many persons would be accompanying them," says Rathore. However, in the same vein he adds it's up to the individual designers if they want to use it as a place just for partying or trade. Sources say there are some in FDCI who still discuss little things like models not turning up on time and who leaked the news to the media. Rohit Gandhi, who interestingly hosted a lunch before his show last year, avers this helped his cause. "The buyers felt relaxed and were aware what they were going to see." Paras feels a show card explaining the `look' could play this role equally effectively.
The way up seems to be through corporate-tie-ups. "A situation where we provide the design - it need not necessarily be clothes alone - and the other details are filled in by a corporate house professionally. It could be chocolates or promoting Jodhpur as a brand for me, footwear or even Bollywood for somebody else," maintains Rathore. Even the oldies are changing. Recently JJ Valaya tied up with Skin Sin to launch his footwear line. It's just that he prefers the word "evolving" to changing. "Two of my understudies are participating in the Week. This gives a great feeling and shows how fashion has evolved in the country," adds Valaya.
Affordable fashion
FDCI still swears by "affordable fashionbut with real estate prices escalating and imminent chances of imposition of new taxes, designers are finding it difficult to control the costs. "Most senior designers burnt their fingers by rushing to prêt because they didn't have the support base to excel in the retail market. It's designers like Anita Dongre, who changes the slant of stripes on shirts with seasons who really benefited. This year most are expected to return to the diffusion category," says an industry source.
It's essentially a battle of mindsets. An industry expert says, "Despite all the media hype we have not been able to attract the consumer away from the tailor next door for his daily requirements. It's only on occasions that he ventures into a designer store."
On the design front though, thanks to the Week, Indian silhouettes have been seen in new light on the world ramp. After kurtis, it's churidars and salwars, which have caught the imagination of Armani, Cavalli and Versace. But still we are selling our outfits as separates? "Jodhpuris, lungis and kurtis all have made fashion statements as separates only. Japanese Kimonos made itthe same way. We are still at a growing stage and I believe on the right track," says Suneet Verma. Experts believe the real trade push is coming from West Asia. The way things are moving, soon we could have an Asian Fashion Week rather than Tokyo, Hong Kong, Dubai Weeks. Deepika says the European market is saturated and Americans don't like conservative clothing so India is an obvious market for fashion houses the world over. "To begin with they are interpreting Indian silhouettes," adds Deepika. The interplay of revelry and reality continues.
Feminine not coy
Mumbai-based Krishna Mehta is not such a well-known name in Delhi but it is her 23rd year of practice as a fashion designer this year.
Krishna, with her label `Krishna Mehta', also has been participating in the highest platform for fashion designers in India - Lakme India Fashion Week.
SOFT AND FLOWING: A model displaying Krishna Mehta's LIFW collection
And at the LIFW starting this Wednesday, this Fashion Design Council of India board member would unveil her Fall-Winter 2005-2006 collection.
Known to be among the very firsts to start a designer menswear way back in 1989, Krishna this time though, has designs only for women.
"My muse is feminine but not coy. She understands the world and its ways and is ready to accept the thorns but without giving up the flowers," says Krishna.
Using fabrics like chiffon, georgette, satin and crepe, her colour palette for the collection has earthen browns, cinnamon, grey, blue, pink and porcelain.
"The look is sensuous yet bold in faded richness and sophisticated antiquity," she explains.
Krishna, who claims to be the first to introduce batik and tie and dye shirts, would, however, keep her women's collection away from it.
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