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SOCIETY AND TRENDS: FASHION
DESIGNERS
Courting
Couture
Indian
designers are daring to storm the citadel of global fashion. But it's
a hostile terrain and it may be a while before they post any convincing
victories.
By Natasha
Israni
July has been her
month. The uberbabe of Indian fashion, Ritu Beri, became the first Indian
to exhibit at the Automne-Hiver 2001-2002 Fashion Week in Paris along
with names like Versace, Dior and Valentino. Breaking away from her campy
lehnga shows, Beri went western with her DIVAS collection-Moulin Rougish
perhaps after dressing Nicole Kidman at Cannes, but with beads and bosoms
and embroidered chestwear. La Beri has a five-year plan: even if she can't
be like Armani or roll in millions, she hopes to be "recognised by
the international lot as a designer to look out for".
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| ROMANCING THE CLOTHES: Selling Indian fashion
to the world will take more than initiative |
In Paris, she did manage Vogue's coverage, though
its legendary editor Anna Wintour might have raised a brow at all the
noise. But with trumpets blowing and labels in place, it's the India Fashion
Inc. finally daring to storm the global citadel of style. Beri claims
she has already made a dent-with help from "promoter and partner"
Mounir Moufarrige, the former president of House of Chloe and marketing
guru of fashion clothes. Moufarrige surveyed 60 designers before choosing
Beri as his protege, and will now market and promote her clothes. Fusion
or completely western will be the design strategy; textiles will be Indian
and Italian.
"I'm creating my own path internationally,"
asserts Beri. "At least the designers who come after me will know
such a path exists." Forging such a path included the launch of her
pret-a-porter (ready-to-wear) series in Paris in October last year. And
the dreams are big all right: she wants to drape the likes of Madonna
at the Oscar Awards ceremony. She is, however, silent about the colour
of her 2003 collection-going by the reaction of fellow designers, it might
well be green. Her designs reveal "lack of finish", protests
one. While she may have "worked overtime on the press hype, the reality
in terms of actual sales abroad is very different", adds another.
Others claim that "the only reason she sells in some places abroad
is because the NRIs are familiar with her name".
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RITU BERI
First Indian to show in Paris. Sales strategy includes press hype
and good marketing. |
But Beri is smug, claiming sales at Liberty in
London, Saks in New York, Silk Heritage in Chicago, and Ishtan in Japan,
besides stores across the US, Switzerland, Lebanon and Bangladesh. Contesting
her claim is Sue Holmes, buyer at Liberty, who says pret from India is
not stocked in the store. What is stocked, however, are pyjamas, slippers,
bed linen, scarves, tea cosies and the like from Abraham & Thakore,
a Delhi-based designer house. Indian fashion-currently happening only
"in small pockets" in the international market-needs to be a
mix of creativity and western sophistication, says Holmes.
While Beri may have been the only one to get
a hearing outside India, snapping at her heels are fashionistas like Suneet
Varma, Rocky S and even J.J. Vallaya, who are hailing the global demand
for "western fashion with an Indian sensibility". It's a formidable
task-of pushing Indian designer dreams in the fussy and eclectic international
fashion markets, of creating designer labels that will vie for space with
the Guccis and Ralph Laurens in the couture capitals of the world. It's
about daring to do the impossible, and Ritu Kumar, who has been exporting
textiles for nearly 25 years now, agrees. "It's a tough world out
there," she says. "There are very few ideas and styles that
have not been tried by someone else."
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RITU KUMAR
Exporting textiles for 25 years. NRIs form90 per cent of her clientele. |
But there are precedents. In the 1970s, fashion
dinosaur Bina Ramani scored at Bloomingdale's in New York with her Indian
collection. In the 1980s, designer label Ravissant launched by Ravi and
Mina Chawla retailed exclusively from Harrods and Selfridges in London
and at Lord & Taylor in the US. Yet, Indian names failed to make a
lasting impact and they have never endeavoured to flood the western markets
in such big numbers. From Raghavendra Rathore and Rajesh Pratap Singh
to Rina Dhaka and Aparna Kapoor, all have designs on the world. But it
might not be simple. "We're still a cottage industry, perhaps with
the exception of Ritu Kumar," sighs Tarun Tahiliani.
Kingfisher beer, the flagship brand of the United
Breweries Limited, may have gone into a promotion overdrive in sponsoring
Beri, but for a cash-starved Indian fashion industry, such sponsorships
are all too welcome. "Corporate tie-ups are essential not only for
ventures abroad, but also for the huge Indian market," says Manoviraj
Khosla, a Bangalore-based designer. Rocky S, the designer from Mumbai
who wants to open stores across the world within the next decade, agrees.
"It makes sense to go in right now as India still holds fascination
for westerners. But it isn't practical to do cholis; the idea is westernised
designs with an Indian touch," he adds.
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