| |
LIFESTYLE,
DESIGNER WEAR
A
first for Fashion
Indian
couturiers congregate for an extravaganza aimed at highlighting the state
of the Industry.
By
Anna M.M. Vetticad
New
York in New Delhi? Tokyo at Taj Palace? Not exactly, but the fashion weeks
at Paris, Milan, New York, Tokyo and London are the prototypes for the
Lakme India Fashion Week to be held in Delhi from August 17-23. It's organised
by the nascent Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI), but hang on, this
is not just another fashion show. For a solo-genius driven industry, it's
the first time that Indian designers have come together on one platform.
It's a showcasing of their not-so-expensive ready-to-wear lines through
24 ramp shows over seven days with 33 designers -- young and not-so-young,
established and yet-to-be -- all involving a cost of Rs 3.5 crore-plus!
And despite differences within the design community and the inevitable
politicking, there's one thing that everyone agrees on: that if it works
out, this is one small step for Indian fashion and a giant leap for its
future as an industry.
It's a sign,
says L.V. Saptarishi, director-general of the National Institute of Fashion
Technology (NIFT), an institutional member of FDCI's board, that "Indian
designers have realised individual name and fame will not achieve distinction
for the industry as a whole. The fashion industry has come of age and
has got to be taken note of." He chooses his words carefully. Getting
recognition as an "industry" is one of the council's professed
goals.
Away from
the hard-partying, heavy-socialising image that fashion and fashion designers
now sport, FDCI intends to address issues that affect the business of
design as a whole. "If I go to a bank today and say, 'Hi, I'm Suneet
Varma', everyone knows me. They've seen me on TV. But if I ask for a Rs
50 lakh loan, they laugh," laments Varma. But the fact that the less-than
two-decade-old "industry" is putting together this entire gala
with NIFT's support is a positive sign. FDCI, partly funded by the Textiles
Ministry, has also commissioned an ORG-MARG study to assess the existing
retail network for garments in the country and to ascertain the number
of outlets that can stock designers' ready-to-wear lines.
But first,
there is the fashion week. "It's aimed at pret lines, the way it
is all over the world," says Ritu Kumar who was recently roped into
the FDCI's board. "You can't have the Indian industry basing itself
on haute couture. You have to focus on pret to increase and widen the
base." For those who might be flummoxed by such jargon, haute couture,
strictly speaking, describes high-end, custom-designed garments fitted
to the individual's body. They are, inevitably, expensive. In India, wedding
garments are among the few outfits that actually fall into this definition,
since weddings are among the rare occasions when Indians seem to be willing
to fish deep into their pockets for costly, made-to-order outfits. But
even otherwise, Indian designers have often been criticised for making
outlandish or ornate garments that most people couldn't dream of wearing,
let alone buy. What the fashion week aims to do is to change that perception,
getting some of the country's top couturiers among others to showcase
their less-expensive pret-a-porter lines, meaning: ready-to-wear, off-the-shelf
designerwear. Board member Tarun Tahiliani counters the criticism: "Sure
everyone abroad has a pret line, but look at the retail infrastructure
they supply to. It's just developing in India with places like Ansal Plaza
and Crossroads. All the top French designers started off with little ateliers
supplying to the very rich. You can't expect things to happen overnight
in India. When people say, 'Oh Dior has a ready-to-wear line,' and 'Dior
has this', they forget that Dior started in 1940 for Christ's sake."
Will it
work out? Nobody knows. But as the Taj Palace Convention Centre in Delhi
becomes India's fashion capital for seven days this month, one thing FDCI
can say for sure: sponsors Lakme have made a three-year commitment. Anil
Chopra, director, Lakme Lever Ltd, also lets on that "there will
be a Lakme Grand Finale show towards the end of the week with three designers,
Tarun Tahiliani, Raghavendra Rathore and Wendell Rodricks". The FDCI
says it's targeting individual and institutional buyers for their presence
here so that the week translates into business for the participating designers.
Select press from the UK and North America are being wooed to attend by
the International Management Group that is putting it all together with
the council. And for that touch of global glamour, British model Jodie
Kidd and three other international faces have been drawn in.
It's not
that differences don't persist. They do. And if FDCI is not careful, the
political sideshows might make more news than the fashion shows. The Delhi-centricity
of the council and its board, for instance, is one such issue. Of the
15 designers on FDCI's board, 10 are from Delhi, three from Mumbai, one
from Calcutta and one from Jodhpur. Senior Mumbai designers Shahab Durazi
and Pallavi Jaikishan are not participating in the fashion week, they
are not FDCI members either. "I felt Mumbai was not given an equal
and fair representation, especially considering that it's one of the larger
fashion markets," says Durazi. Jaikishan feels she was ignored initially,
"and now it's a 'you also join' kind of attitude. I wasn't even aware
of the first FDCI meeting". Saptarishi has a larger point to make
when he says: "The structure of the council should be broadened to
accommodate regional interests. Otherwise, FDCI remains limited to the
few people who started it." At one of the earliest FDCI meetings,
he was pooh-poohed for suggesting a pan-India representation. Delhi designer
Ravi Bajaj remarked: "This is not the Indian hockey team. What will
you do if there is no designer in Orissa?" The debate continues,
but well, shrugs Bangalore boy Manoviraj Khosla who will be holding a
solo show at the fashion week, "let's face it, 80 per cent of India's
designers are in Delhi".
Bajaj has
since resigned from FDCI because "somewhere along the way I didn't
see any objective in it personally. I didn't think it would move in the
direction I wanted". In the mean time, there are other behind-the-scenes
battles. At a recent meeting, Delhi designer Leena Singh once again raised
the issue of why her business partner, Ashima Singh, "being an award-winning
student from NIFT, was not allowed to become a board member. Why? Because
we are two people who have worked and not partied?" She insists that
she would not have objected if there was a fair competition, or if certain
criteria were laid down and everyone who fitted the bill was on the board.
But Delhi exporter Sumeet Nair, a co-opted board member, insists that
"the board was constituted through free and fair elections".
The differences notwithstanding, the Singhs are holding a solo show at
the fashion week.
But at the
end of the day, Lakme India Fashion Week should be seen for what it ought
to be: a trade event where buyers get to see the work of designers. Nothing
more. Nothing less. "The whole idea," explains Jodhpur designer
Rathore, "is to move from the society columns of newspapers to being
perceived as a serious industry." It's not just another fashion show,
it's a beginning.
Top
|
|
India
should learn the kung-fu of business or get hammered by China after it
joins the WTO, says Sudeep Chakravarti in
"It
is a frustration that India and Pakistan have not grown up enough to pull
their heads out of the sand." Read an exclusive interview with 
