Posts Tagged india
India:Fashion gurus’ global designs cut short
everybody feels the downturn…
After years of wooing international buyers to make their mark on the global fashion scene, leading Indian designers are being forced
to re-strategise with sales dipping in international markets due to weakening consumer sentiment.
Designers like Rajesh Pratap Singh, Anamika Khanna and Sabyasachi Mukherjee have walked the global ramp with aplomb in recent years, as invitations to the leading fashion weeks have increased manifold and buyers from leading fashion houses have warmed up to India. But orders are now dropping by almost 25% as there has been a substantial shrinkage in the budgets of major international buying houses.
“Several buyers communicated a reduction in budgets this year, which has affected their buying decisions. To tackle the slowdown in western markets, we focused on buyers from West Asia this season, who accounted for 30-35% of total orders,” Vikram Raizada, vice-president and head of fashion at IMG, a co-sponsor of the Lakme Indian Fashion Week, said.
While some designers said that they would now like to refocus on India where they are already established bands, others are looking at rejigging international sales through value offerings.
“When budgets shrink, international buyers tend to prefer homegrown designers. Indian labels are already more difficult to market internationally, so it becomes a defeating proposition to focus on international markets now,” Sabyasachi Mukherjee said. He is now planning to stave off competition from international casualwear brands in India by diversifying from ethnicwear to ‘ethnopret’.
“There is already a ready market in India in terms of acceptance of the brand, which can be further expanded,” he added.
1 comment November 13, 2008
India:Fraternal feeling back in fashion?
again,news from India 
Many designers had walked the ramp for Gudda, with the designer himself breaking down at the end of the show and doing a little jig.
Of course, just a season later, things were rather different. There had been a major upheaval in the industry, Sumeet Nair had quite FDCI and formed a parallel body, and Gudda had decided to show there.
Which is why the presence of designers from the rival events at both the fashion weeks on Thursday was a talking point, both for other designers and for the visitors. While Rajesh Pratap Singh, who’s showing at the FDCI’s WIFW, came to Gudda’s show along with other WIFW designers like Rohit Gandhi, Mandira Wirk, Vijay Arora and Manoviraj Khosla, Gudda himself went to Pragati Maidan with Raghavendra Rathore to spread a little cheer among old friends.
He came to see Pankaj and Nidhi’s show. Post the show, we heard him say, “It would have been better if we had all together done this. But for now, this is how it is going to be.” But he sounded quite upbeat by the end and said, “It is also possible that there will be a patch up very soon. Let’s see.”
Add comment October 18, 2008
Is Indian market ready for virtual fashion onslaught?
again,an interesting article from India
In the existing global financial turmoil, India has emerged as one of the most favoured destinations. Afterall, we have statistics to prove that by 2020, we will have the highest number of young spenders, even overtaking the likes of China, Russia and the Middle East. And cashing in on this hype are international brands.
In the past few years, noted international luxury brands including Louis Vuitton, Moschino, Gucci, Tommy Hilfiger, Boss Hugo Boss, Jimmy Choo, Salvatore Ferragamo, Aigner, Estée Lauder, Esprit and Bottega Veneta have set shop in Mumbai.
Domestically, our fashion scene is on a roll. We have four, and still counting, fashion weeks in the year and Bollywood fashion is a big trendsetter. Fuelling this growth of the fashion industry is the hunger for international brands. But is our market really ready for this virtual fashion onslaught? Are these international brands really doing the kind of big business they are projecting?
According to Priya Chatwal, COO and Creative Director of TSG International Marketing Pvt Ltd who is behind getting brands like Jean Paul Gaultier, Alberta Ferrati, Moschino and Stella McCartney to India, Mumbaiites are very stylish. “They love to dress and love their clothes,” she says. She adds, “Style is a very important part of their personalities and this gives us a lot of hope and encouragement.”
Echoing Priya’s opinion is Harish Chandra, brand manager for Boss Hugo Boss India. He says, “Over the last few years there has been a great change in the overall spending attitude. People want to associate with high end brands and flaunt it irrespective of the kind of money they need to spend.”
Boss Hugo Boss opened its first store in Delhi in 2003 and soon followed with stores in Mumbai and Bangalore. So have sales in India lived up to the company’s expectations? Harish says the response has been above expectations and that they are positive they will do even better in the coming years.
Not everyone buys branded goods as a necessity, but as Priya says, because they want to enjoy luxury. “Of course, luxury brands are made for those who can afford it. But then again, there’s a growing income group in India. It’s a very important economy today and it’s growing very fast too. There’s always a new millionaire emerging every year. They again want to have that lifestyle and if they can afford it, why not,” she questions.
1 comment October 11, 2008
“Fashion” to premiere at New York’s South Asian film fest
more buzz from “fashion” 
“Fashion”, Madhur Bhandarkar’s film set in the glamorous but ruthless world of haute couture, is slated for its world premiere Oct 24 during the week-long 5th South Asian International Film Festival (SAIFF) here. Nandita Das’ “Firaaq”, also from India, is the opening night feature of the festival and Das starrer “Ramchand Pakistani” directed by Mehreen Jabbar is the closing film. The festival runs Oct 22-28.
SAIFF 2008 will present a select combination of full-length films, shorts and documentaries in a variety of genres. With several screening locations in Manhattan and high-profile sponsors like HBO, the New York Times and Time Warner Cable, the festival is dedicated to supporting established and emerging filmmakers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, as well as the South Asian diaspora.
“Fashion”, starring Priyanka Chopra, Kangana Ranaut and Raj Babbar explores the world of style through the emotional journeys of the key people that make up the industry -models, designers, photographers, agencies and businessmen.
“Firaaq”, which premiered last month at the Toronto International Film Festival, takes place over a 24-hour period one month after the 2002 communal violence in Gujarat. It features a star studded ensemble portraying the emotional journeys of “ordinary people” – some victims, some perpetrators and some who watched silently.
Add comment October 11, 2008
It’s about design, not fashion
quite nice article and they are right…
Madhu Jain and Milind Soman are collaborating on innovating trends for Indian textiles, including Kashmiri embroidery.
In Lutyens’ Delhi, surrounded by art and artifacts, the daughter of businessman Kamal Meattle is photographing model-turned-entrepreneur Milind Soman for a collection of textile-driven garments that Soman and designer Madhu Jain are launching. At a time when launches, fashion events and weeks are choking the city’s social life, the announcement of their label — the banal-sounding M — stands out for its refreshing candour. Here is a fashion brand that, says Soman, “is not a fashion label but a design label”.
It isn’t all semantics because M’s collection is hardly silhouette-driven. All it has going for it is the strength of the Indian weaver and the innovations of Jain and Soman behind it. For a couple of years, the duo’s “A Tribute to the Masters” collection has only been shown on the ramp; now, for the first time, it is available for sale on racks at Ensemble in New Delhi’s tony DLF Emporio.
Jain is agitating over several things — the kalamkari t-shirts haven’t arrived yet, Soman wants to go running instead of talking to hacks, and she has to, well, wash her hair. Soman, who flew in the previous night from London, is red-eyed from lack of sleep, but is gung-ho about “globalising and popularising Indian textiles with great innovation and style”. In other words, “We are innovating the textiles, but someone else needs to interpret them into garments.”
Add comment October 8, 2008
Vogue’s Fashion Photos Spark Debate in India
mhhh…quite strange pictures
An old woman missing her upper front teeth holds a child in rumpled clothes — who is wearing a Fendi bib (retail price, about $100).
A family of three squeezes onto a motorbike for their daily commute, the mother riding without a helmet and sidesaddle in the traditional Indian way — except that she has a Hermès Birkin bag (usually more than $10,000, if you can find one) prominently displayed on her wrist.
Elsewhere, a toothless barefoot man holds a Burberry umbrella (about $200).
Welcome to the new India — at least as Vogue sees it.
Vogue India’s August issue presented a 16-page vision of supple handbags, bejeweled clutches and status-symbol umbrellas, modeled not by runway stars or the wealthiest fraction of Indian society who can actually afford these accessories, but by average Indian people.Perhaps not surprisingly, not everyone in India was amused.
Add comment September 1, 2008
Nooyi, Buffett among biz icons with distinct fashion sense
business and fashion belongs together
NEW YORK: They are better known for their business acumen but people like cola queen Indra Nooyi, legendary investor Warren Buffett and tech tycoon Steve Jobs have now made it to a list of top ‘executive icons’ with distinctive fashion sense.
The 15 chief executives and business people, featured in a ‘Executive Icons’ list compiled by US magazine Conde Nast Portfolio in its web edition, also include media mogul Oprah Winfrey, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, celebrity publisher Martha Stewart, business tycoon Donald Trump, former eBay chief Meg Whitman and actress and businesswoman Mary-Kate Olsen.
“The men and women who rise to the top of the business world have strong and distinctive personalities. The same words can often be applied to their fashion sense,” the publication said.
Add comment August 24, 2008
In fashion industry, one needs to blend aesthetics and style
quite valuable tips!
Teamwork is crucial for success in the fashion industry, says Shailesh Chaturvedi, CEO, Tommy Hilfiger Apparels India. Besides remunerations, team members can be motivated by high-quality results, quick decision making, challenging assignments, transparency and open door access, genuine care and role clarity, etc., he tells Yogesh Saigal.
There were sharp creative leanings with a passion for reading, writing and plays. I excelled in languages in the Maharashtra board at standard X, but finally settled into the routine of a good student going in for engineering.
Academic credentials
I am a pucca Bombay boy, having done my civil engineering from Sardar Patel College of Engineering, Bombay, in 1990, followed by an MBA from Narsee Monjee in 1992.
Work experience
Before joining as CEO of Tommy Hilfiger (part of Arvind Murjani Brands Pvt Ltd), I headed the Asia Pac Wholesale business of Benetton Plc, Italy, based at Hong Kong and led the business in quite a large set of countries including Australia, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines. Prior to this, I had spent nearly 13 years with the Madura Group in India — I spearheaded the launch of German brand Esprit in India in 2005 and also handled all premium brands of Madura Garments (Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, Allen Solly) as the general manager-marketing.
Keys to professional success
Vast experience in the apparel retail industry has helped and the strategy of building a career by focusing on one particular segment may have worked for me (the advantage of a long innings in a single industry and growing within one organisation). The experience of interacting with international brands and the skill sets developed on launching these international brands in India have been invaluable.
Positives of teamwork
In the fashion industry, one needs to blend commercial sense with creativity, aesthetics and style. These are often diverse faculties requiring different types of personalities of team members. A good blend of team members delivers a yin and yang of fashion and commerce. Hence, teamwork is crucial for success.
Add comment August 18, 2008
Sandhya Lalloo: fashion designer of SIN
an interview with a nearly unknown designer in Europe:
SANDHYA Lalloo draws on Indian culture, blending unusual colours and mixing luxurious fabrics to create pieces for her label, SIN.
How did you begin your career in fashion design?As a young girl I dressed my Maltese poodle in the most outrageous clothing I could come up with, from ’rock pup’ to ’Driving Miss Daisy’. My poodle had a closet full of clothing and accessories. So began my career.
What is your design signature?Funk meets suave. Smart casuals tainted by SIN.
Who is your design hero?Jean Paul Gaultier.
What inspires your collections? Do you look to other designers, culture, nature ?I’m inspired by lots of things such as colour, fabric, people, insects, flowers, music … everything around me.
What is the most coveted item in your wardrobe?My pair of cherry-red heels from Europa that I bought last week. I had been looking for them for more than a year.
If you could live in any decade, which one would it be and why?60s’ psychedelic. It suits my style.
2 comments August 14, 2008
Fashion diva Ritu Kumar shifts gears
Fashion diva Ritu Kumar is these days shifting gears to hone her writing skills and improve her fitness levels.
Her autobiography will provide interesting insights into her life while her fitness regime has seen her shedding weight – that in turn has seen her getting loads of compliments from her vast circle of friends.
“I am working on the book for a while now. It will be about my work with the craft and how it has undergone transformation over a period of years,” Ritu told IANS.
“It is too soon to decide the title of the book,” she added.
Nowadays Ritu Kumar is seen in a new toned avatar. She has lost eight kilos and is aiming to reduce more. Her fitness regime is a mix of exercise, yoga and meditation.
“I have been keeping very busy, but I thought that I should give some time to myself too,” Ritu said.
“Fitness is important for everyone but if one is in the fashion business, fitness becomes a necessity because people look up to you for inspiration.”
Ritu Kumar is a well-known name in the fashion fraternity. She has been in this business for over 30 years. She has also been designing the wardrobes of Indian contestants at international pageants for 14 years now. But when it comes to her personal style statement she believes in mix and match.
Add comment August 8, 2008
