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LIFESTYLE: FASHION WEEK
Ruffled Feathers
After the opting out of supermodels, it's the Fashion
Council's finances that is generating much heat
By Natasha Israni with Methil Renuka
Few things, of
late, have created greater schadenfreude than the run-up to the second
Lakme India Fashion Week (LIFW). First, it was about some fashionistas
like Ravi Bajaj and Pallavi Jaikishan having been ignored, and others
like Raghavendra Rathore having dropped out. Now, it's the turn of our
desi supermodels to do a bunk; alphababe Madhu Sapre will not be sashaying
down the LIFW ramp along with the wiccan-eyed Noyonika Chatterjee and
the Bollywood-struck Bipasha Basu.
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| ROHIT BAL SAYS: Madhu Sapre refused
to bring the price down ... so what, we have Sheetal Mallar. |
| HE MEANS: It does not matter to us
whether top models participate or not. Are they that hot anyway? |
The kerfuffle is all about India's self-styled
apex fashion body-the Delhi-based Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI),
its response to LIFW 2001 and, of course, money. Three years ago, a handful
of Delhi designers like peroxide blonde Rohit Bal, along with exporter
and designer Gitanjali Kashyap's husband Sumeet Nair set up the FDCI,
with Nair as co-opted member. Now, the faux fur is flying. The fact that
the board is self-appointed is a major grouse. "We needed to have
it that way initially just to get things going," protests Nair, who
is now the executive director. "Now that the FDCI has many more members,
we will hold elections for the board in September this year."
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| MADHU SAPRE SAYS: I've
no intention of creating bad blood. All I can say is that I am not
taking part in LIFW 2001. |
| SHE MEANS: I
belong to this industry. I don't want enemies. I'm going to be careful
and steer clear of controversy. |
The promise might soothe some feathers at the
Mumbai Fashion Week. Read 44 "insecure folks"-as Bajaj likes
to put it-working with 48 equally temperamental clotheshorses, for 27
ramp shows. Predictably, spats are inviting more attention than the "business
of fashion", the original aim of the extended exercise. IMG, a global
sports marketing and event management company, is responsible for all
commercial aspects as well as event management at LIFW. It may own the
New York Fashion Week but in India its experience has been limited to
sports so far. This unfamiliarity with handling fashion egos has created
discontent, with discounting model fees surfacing as the major issue.
Reported missing are top models like Dino Morea, John Abraham, Joey Mathew
and Ayesha Prem. Sapre, perhaps the highest paid among the country's female
models, created a storm in Delhi over her unwillingness to take part in
the show. She refused to give in to the 30 per cent discount demand, which
would have put her in the Rs 17,500 per show LIFW category while her reported
asking price is Rs 25,000. But Sapre is hurt by the furore. "I really
had no intention of creating bad blood because of my refusal. All I can
say is that I am not participating."
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POINTS OF FEUD
LIFW responds to a flurry of allegations flung its way
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| GROUSE |
LIFW RETORT |
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Why can't the names of jury members who
selected the LIFW participants be announced?
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The jury members have requested anonymity.
And it's never done by other international fashion bodies as well.
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Why do the registered members of the FDCI
have to cough up a show registration fee?
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In a way, the fee remains their own. It
goes into the FDCI corpus fund to be used for market research or
participation in global fairs.
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The 30 per cent
discount being demanded from the models for the LIFW show is too
steep.
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Giving discounts in bulk shows is a done
thing. Where else will a model get 12 shows in seven days and this
kind of a forum?
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Why is Lakme holding a grand finale with
the spotlight only on three designers?
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Lakme is the title sponsor and the designers
are chosen on the basis of who best suits its theme.
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Models have five scales of payment and each was
asked to give a 30 per cent discount; a ramp model earning Rs 10,000 would
get Rs 7,000, post-discount. But since there is no Rs 7,000 category,
the model gets Rs 6,000 instead, escalating the 30 per cent discount to
40 per cent. "By a similar calculation, some end up having to concede
less than 30 per cent. No one is complaining about that," retorts
IMG's Zubin Sarkare who is also LIFW 2001 event director. Models claim
they were promised at least 13 shows each but that it's down to a minimum
of seven now. So they end up making much less money after rebate.
For the "been there, done that" beauties
like Fleur Xavier, it just doesn't make for sound economics. "I think
FDCI being a much bigger organisation than the NIFD could have given the
models a better deal rather than demanding high discounts. Instead they
wanted to stick to last year's deal." Sarkare maintains that the
spending on models is the single highest expense head (close to Rs 50
lakh) and that the buck has to stop somewhere while trying to control
the spiralling costs.
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