• Investment World
• eWorld
• Catalyst
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest

Ratna Bhushan

NEW DELHI, Aug. 6

INDIAN designers need to treat fashion as a business proposition rather than just a creative pursuit," says Mr David Caruso, Vice-President (Marketing & Special Projects), IMG, New York.

"One could equate the fashion industry in India to driving a sports car on a dirt track," adds Mr Ravi Krishnan, Director -- Fashion, Asia Pacific, IMG India. That sums up the mood at the Lakme India Fashion Week (LIFW).

While the final verdict on the LIFW event is still a few days away, the general consensus is that the domestic fashion industry still has a long way to go in terms of maturity.

While certain disgruntled fashion designers have been pointing fingers at the `mismanagement' of the event at some levels, the organisers of India Fashion Week are of the opinion that Indian designers could do with more professionalism.

Also, while there has been no dearth of corporate sponsorship deals with big names such as HLL (for its Lakme and Sunsilk brands), Seagram, Fiat, Evian, Coca-Cola and the Taj Hotels group pitching in, the event has not yet attracted big orders from the international and domestic trade.

"There are obvious differences between the New York Fashion Week and the India Fashion Week, specially to do with payment structures and sponsorship deals," says Mr Caruso.

According to Mr Krishnan, what the domestic fashion industry needs is evolution of better distribution facilities, and a more organised retail infrastructure. "However, it will require a great deal of patience and time. We believe events such as the India Fashion Week could provide the much needed catalyst for that change," he adds.

Meanwhile, in terms of sheer size, the event is undoubtedly bigger than last year, and took a year of planning and management, according to Mr Krishnan.

IMG is now looking at developing similar fashion properties in other Asian countries such as Thailand and Singapore, and that could involve taking Indian designers to European and other Western countries. Meanwhile, the periodicity of the India Fashion Week could be extended to twice a year, according to Mr Krishnan.

The event's sponsors and cosmetic companies, meanwhile, are hoping that the fashion rub-off on their brands will be adequate. At last year's Lakme India Fashion Week event, for example, sales of Lakme-Lever's `shimmer, shine, sparkle' cosmetics line introduced to coincide with the event, grew by 26 per cent. According to Mr Anil Chopra, Business Head, Lakme-Lever, offtake of this year's `Think Brilliance' range (introduced to coincide with the Fashion Week) could well outperform last year's `shimmer, shine, sparkle' line.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section
HarperCollins teams up with India Today for publishing, distribution

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line