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Indian fashion taking wing

Designers are strutting their stuff abroad

PHOTO: KAMAL NARANG

ACROSS THE SEAS Indian designers are breaking fashion frontiers

If somebody writes the history of Indian fashion, 2006 would be marked as the year when it took flight. Around a dozen Indian designers have participated or are expected to participate in fashion weeks around the world this year.

This month alone, Ritu Beri and Kiran Uttam Ghosh are participating in Paris Couture Fashion Week and Rome Fashion Week respectively. Manish Arora has already shown his work in London Fashion Week for second year running and come September Ashish Soni, who debuted in the tents at the New York Fashion Week last year, will get to show his work on the main ramp.

Moreover, 10 designers have got tickets to participate in IMG-organised fashion weeks, courtesy their participation in the Lakme Fashion Week, which is also organised by IMG.

They include Sabyasachi Mukherjee for New York, Narendra Kumar Ahmad and Nandita Mehtani for Sydney, Manish Malhotra, Priyadarshni Rao and Surily Goel for Los Angeles and Sonam Dubal for Melbourne. India is the toast of the world and this reflects in the number of invitations. "Bollywood is being shown in Germany during prime time," analyses Narendra Kumar Ahmed, a former fashion editor of Elle. Highlighting the economic aspect, Narendra says India is being seen as the knowledge hub and the world wants to see how it reflects in clothes.

"In a way designers are riding the wave created by the IT (crowd). India is no longer just the centre for sourcing embroidery."

Indeed, Kiran Uttam Ghosh doesn't have to depend on the largesse of Indo-Italian Chamber of Commerce for the invite, as has been the case in the past. She says she has been invited by the Altaroma, the organiser of Rome Fashion Week, directly after seeing her India Fashion Week collection.

The foreign shores are also an image-building exercise, both in Indian and exotic territories. Relates Manish: "After London Fashion Week, suddenly I have been taken seriously." Narendra agrees: "It is like going out to come in."

Sabyasachi feels though he takes it as primarily a business exercise but showing and selling abroad does change perceptions. "My Nair Sisters collection was ripped by the media when I showcased it at the India Fashion Week as repetitive. But when it was bought by Browns and Selfridges, it was termed imaginative."

Ritu says you got to keep showing on big stages to keep the image going.

Cost has always been a factor that restricted Indian designers from taking the world stage. Showing at an international fashion week means an investment in the range of Rs.30-50 lakhs, which only the biggies could afford.

Sabyasachi says the IMG support means that the participation fee has been waived but he still has to look out for sponsors. "I believe Ministries of Textile and Tourism should support the designers as we are playing a part in making Indian textiles and destinations popular."

ANUJ KUMAR

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