I guess you don’t have to be a fan of Keeping up with the Kardashians to appreciate that fashion is entertainment, and more populist than ever before. This is the age, after all, of the sportstar-designer, the celebrity-designer, the film director-designer, the social babe-designer. And though fashion is still an insider’s game, with its own addicts and agenda-setting titles, the competition is out there with authentic judgment of bloggers and web viewers. In such a scenario, ask yourself: how elitist can Indian fashion afford to be?
The 18th edition of India Fashion Week, sponsored by retail biggie Wills Lifestyle in Delhi last week, offered so many themes of exotic ‘otherness’, that the catwalks often looked like a travel special. Escape was one of the themes that emerged literally and metaphorically. Probably, all designers who work hard in the dull suburbs of Delhi and Mumbai, end up fantasising about rainbow continents and Louis XV French gardens, and projecting their longings on the unsuspecting consumer in the local mall. But it is time to wake up and smell the coffee, no matter how Brazilian the flavour is. There is no escaping market realities, even though some people’s global positioning systems seem to suggest that the fastest route to Morocco is via the Andes.
India’s textile and apparel sector already stands at $45 billion. Various industry reports suggest that by 2012, the fashion segment alone will touch $3.5 billion. And therein lies the rub. Only a fraction of these billions will belong to the designer fraternity.
There was a time when designer fashion was the preserve of the country’s creme. This is no longer the case; with a bubbling middle class and rising wages, the Indian market is turning into a place of great opportunities and pitfalls. With the entry of high-street foreign brands like Zara, Promod, Mango, Diesel and Forever 21 already influencing tastes among the urban youth, the time to make a mark is now. The trick is to get close to the consumer and engage with her as she evolves.
Manish Arora is a classic case in point. On the watch-list in Paris today, his play for the Indian market is quite different. His fashion for Paris and India are two different ball-games. His global label is Manish Arora, Paris, while for the local market he crafted Indian by Manish Arora a year ago. Fish Fry remains the more accessible line, but at the moment, awaiting a re-invention, perhaps?
As Arora’s business partner Deepak Bhagwani puts it: “You can make as much noise outside, but it won’t reflect in India. The Indian market is unique in that even the modern woman wears traditional-style clothes on most occasions. For example, I would say a very small number of Indian women would buy my Paris label. Which is why we wanted a differentiator label for the Indian market. At the end of the day, this is just like any other business; it needs to make profits.” So, no tulip skirts and angular blouses for Indian by Manish Arora; what you see instead are tunics, kurtas and churidars.
Bhagwani’s assertion is borne out in stall after stall at the trade fair alongside the Fashion Week at Pragati Maidan. The Indian market will not be bridged on the strength of an exceptional run in Paris, Milan or London. The irony is that at a time when only a handful of global couturiers know about hidden seams and hand-frayed edges—and the whole picture of dress has degenerated to a logo and pierced navel—what’s uniting ready-to-wear (RTW) designers, is the use of detailing and craft, often involving old modes of manufacturing and construction to make an original statement.
According to Adreina Longhi, founder of Atilla & Co and the force behind The White Club (an association established in 2007 by Longhi and Massimiliano Bizzi to promote young designers in Milan during Fashion Week), though the garments are beautifully made, one of the biggest problems (with Indian designers) is that to sell to fashion-savvy clients in Europe or America, you need to look at both form and function. Which, of course, makes the traditional look hard to sell. “Also, the shows in India need professional stylists and strong editors.”
Although one can point out designers who have created mini-empires through effective networking and image leveraging, the group that is storming the bastion of Indian fashion owes its influence to clothes. Not marketing campaigns, accessories or chatty celebrities, but clothes. Whether it is an Ikat representation in modern form by Rajesh Pratap Singh, or a digital print evocation of a mountain stream by Namrata Joshipura, as she screams against digital stress and looks for calm places for her heart, it is a picture of a modern or reinterpreted India. “As vast and disparate as our country is, I am actually inspired by its expansiveness. The mountains and glaciers of Uttarakhand have informed my latest collection,” says Joshipura.
These designers represent an ideological break from the celebration market, but their influence is universal and easier to tap into by global clients. Making money is still a problem though for most of these labels, and the media attention they receive, even deservedly, sometimes overstates the picture. The West Asian market, which seems strong this year compared to the tanking European and American ones, still prefers conservative silhouettes and blingy craft and stays far away from those who do better in the fashion stakes.
Young designer Aneeth Arora, who created quite a buzz at WLFW with her label Pero, is actually more expansive in her message of sustainability than the shine of a Swarovski crystal, but it will take a few seasons to figure out whether she knows her way to the market. “My focus is never fashion. I don’t follow forecasts. I want my label to be unpredictable and unstructured. I instinctively rebel against structures,” she says a little naively, showing off her portfolio of Madras checks and chintz, mulls and crinkled superfine khadi. Yet, she masterfully combines periods and cultures for a sense of Indian-summer romance.
The challenges today for interpreting a new India are succinctly defined by Rajeev Sethi, chairman, The Asian Heritage Foundation. “The worldwide demand for something original and unique, promoting geo-centric diversity as an alternative to the mass produced and dehumanising lifestyle of mass consumption, is a rapidly growing imperative… A peek into the future comes from a critical look at sagging Western markets today, where big brands and luxury firms are doing some hardnosed homework in tailoring products and services for an expanding base of discerning buyers in Asia, Latin America and soon, even Africa… The challenge of ‘India re-discovered’ would be met if we do not hanker for the equivalent of a Prada or Benetton; but instead create our own brand ethos, with an eye tuned to the hand, mind and spirit of India’s incredibly unique makers,” he says.
With luxury brands pushing from the top and mass merchants shoving from the bottom, it is tough to have a business in the middle. But that’s exactly what the Petanu line from cashmere brand Pashma is attempting, with its store in San Francisco. Says Aman Kumar of Pashma: “The idea is to give the bi-coastal client an accessible, easy-to-wear range, which may look Western-chic, but is in spirit inspired by India, like the segment on Holi. The global Indian is always looking for something new.”
Anita Dongre understands that. In fact, few designers of her generation have understood the consumer and her impulsiveness as well as her. It’s a reason the look changes with each of her three successful labels. She knows that while, in the past, women stuck with the same two or three designers most of their lives, they don’t do so anymore. Dongre’s labels—Anita Dongre, AND, and Global Desi—address three different segments of the market and three different consumer types. For years, Dongre has operated under the radar of media mavens, but she has built a very strong profitable business. So much so, that she has now attracted equity participation from the Future Group, which in turn has infused her business with funds and visibility.
“I run a very tight and professional ship. The Future Group doesn’t interfere in my operations. But thanks to it, today I have been able to expand my business manifold. AND has 26 stores, Global Desi 27, and Anita Dongre, seven. Next year, we plan to open 25 more AND and GD stores and three more Anita Dongres. By early next year, I will introduce AND Men and Anita Dongre Men. Menswear is the next big challenge. I am really excited.”
While Dongre rode her luck with the Future Group, giving her access to premium space in the malls in both Tier-I and Tier-II cities, not everyone is going to be that lucky. Retail space is still the bugbear for the fashion industry.
Says Atul Malhotra of the critically acclaimed retail brand Evoluzione: “I have no hesitation in saying that the cost of retail space is obscene in India, and most of our mall developers haven’t a clue about the zoning they need to do. They would rather have cheap and tacky Western brands as anchor stores, rather than Indian labels. This mentality really needs to change. Indian fashion has become quite a mover for footfalls and they need to recognise that.”
This is an argument that Atul Chand of Wills Lifestyle probably agrees with, since his stores have seen an upward movement in their fashion brands. “The share of Wills Lifestyle has grown 10-15 per cent, and is currently 20 per cent of women’s wear, with metro stores reporting 25-30 per cent share. The absolute volumes have grown as well, as a result of store expansion and growth. As our retail footprint expands, the segment will continue to grow,” says Chand.
The key clearly lies in understanding just how young men and women want to dress, and keeping them hooked. Explains Chand: “Our lifestyle privileges programme, Club Wills, comprises more than 1.2 lakh members who are strongly bonded with the brand. We interact with them at various touchpoints; at the store, online through our website and various social media, the Season catalogue, special offers and personalised services. These help us engage with customers closely, inform them about new collections and their features, and start dialogues on products and services, thus spurring multiple visits to our stores, and consequently, more frequent purchases.”
According to Malhotra, a key differentiator—as more and more multi-brand retailers enter the fray—will be the fashion focus of each brand. “Our culture is changing. Younger guys and girls are getting inducted into foreign brands. There is a big market, if we can tap into it successfully. The price-points have to be cheaper, though not necessarily as price warriors. We are coming up with another brand just for the youth market, and those young at heart.”
Just how easy that will be is anybody’s guess. Fashion industry analysts, who tend to be skeptical of the pronouncements of editors, readily acknowledge that there hasn’t been a single squawk-moment since the arrival of Sabyasachi. Fashion in India is still largely dictated and influenced by a club of designers whose average age is 35. They feel the pulse of the times, and everybody feeds off them.
The truism that I have come to trust is that the runway never lies. This year, for most of Fashion Week, I was bored.
Email the writer at: roy.chandralekha@gmail.com