Armani has done bandhgalas. Zegna is reported to be eyeing them too. Alexander McQueen?s Fall 2008 collection was inspired by Indian maharajas. Now Canali, the Italian premium menswear brand has just launched its ?Nawab Collection?, an India inspired range. ?Just wait for two years and we will have Versace saris,? designer Ravi Bajaj observes.

He may not be long off the mark. Indian designers may have hogged the limelight as far as Page 3s go, but they are not even in the reckoning in the mass market. As the sponsor of the three-day men?s fashion ?week? ending today in Delhi, Madura Garments-owned Van Heusen?s COO Shital Mehta, points out that ?we will do ?classic?, ?contemporary? and ?fashion? and they will do designer wear?. Right now, he says, ?nobody buys designerwear?, but by associating with brands, ?their market might reach 10% in two to three years?.

Just how big this market is a matter of conjecture as there is no reliable data. The size of the menswear market is estimated to be about Rs 45,000 crore, of which the branded segment is about Rs 15,000 crore, numbers lucrative enough for others to seek a larger share of the pie.

As most brands are offering shirts beyond the solids and pinstripes, the challenge is only building up for Indian menswear designers. Perceptions suggest the Indian customer is still not as trusting of the quality of fabric, construction and cuts for many an Indian designer vis-?-vis an international brand. As men are likely to buy clothes that stay with them longer, they need to be absolutely sure there will be no issues about stitching or loose threads, says a designer on condition of anonymity. Another factor going against them is that, unlike for women?swear there is no market abroad. ?Export is only a small part of our sales,? points out Kevin Nigli, Creative Director, Abraham & Thakore. Designer Tarun Tahiliani points out that there has been expansion in the domestic market for kurtas and sherwanis, but ?Indian designers will have to plan more? to grow.

Who will make the corrections

All stakeholders agree that India?s strength lies in its diversity of fabrics and traditions of embroidery and embellishments, and has the required talent. And occasionwear is bespoke for Indian men. ?We have to do better finishing and work on silhouettes,? says Bajaj. ?Had Indian designers got financial backing a decade ago, things would have been different. Today Indian designers will have to think out of the box to succeed.?

And this is where the nub of the problem lies. ?Price barriers will have to be broken,? says emerging designer Nitin Bal Chauhan, whose current collection for T-shirts starts from just Rs 300! Rohit Gandhi, whose label Cue has stuck with pr?t ever since they started 13 years ago, says ?now you can see other designers do pr?t lines. ?Pr?t is all about style, quality and pricing, and if you have the set up, go for it, otherwise don?t experiment, for you cannot cover flaws here.? His advice in the latter case, go the brands. Designer Gunjan Arora says ?we are consciously trying not to exceed certain price points,? admitting however that economies of scale are needed in the Indian fashion industry.

Brands are being seen as the saviours for this rather endangered species. Designer Shantanu Mehra says once the industry becomes more mature and corporatisation happens, there is likely to be greater synergy between designers and brands. While this move ? the norm in the West ? has been touted for long in the Indian fashion fraternity, and even tried out, largely unsuccessfully, no designer yet is identified with any brand. ?India has lots of designers, but few have taken their business plans seriously,? he explains. While designers such as Ashish Soni and Sabyasachi have consistently done westerns wear including formals, even emerging designers such as Rajvi Mohan, the only woman showcasing on the ramp at this ongoing Week, are sticking to them as ?the growth in menswear is crazy ? 40% last year?. She too stresses the need to evolve distinct identities, for brands as well. ?The future is based on differentiation,? she says.

?Marketing and branding have to be very specific and strategic, targeting the right audience, while retail space and price points are equally important,? says designer Abhiskek Gupta. But as Gandhi points out, some tie-ups tried out earlier perhaps confused the identities of the brand and the designer. ?Just tying up with a brand will not help. Instead identify where you fit in.? Scotching perceptions of brand interference in designer collections, he explains that while designers follow their brief, the designers too know what sells, and design accordingly.

Brand over business

And that specificity is what most designers are highlighting at the ongoing week, a long-time dream for organiser FDCI. Incidentally, this is the first for ?week? for menswear in India, though Prasad Bidapa?s annual men?s fashion ?fair? at Bangalore is a regular feature for Indian fashion. This is a trade event, stresses Gandhi. ?We needed a separate week to spotlight menswear as it tends to get overshadowed at the generic fashion weeks,? explains FDCI chief Sunil Sethi. But he too admits that ?we are experimenting? and the results of this rather modest week going by past standards ? one ramp, 15 shows, 20 designers on the ramp, 30 in all, mostly men, just four rows of seating, lower tariffs of participation and fairly extensive subsidisation, almost two-thirds of the participation tariff for some designers. Arora feels though that separate focus to menswear could have been given within the existing weeks, ?as it is difficult to get the buyers to come repeatedly at different times ?.

As for the likes of Canali coming in, Indian designers will have live with the fact that as the Indian market grows, international brands are going to get interested. ?We have added our interpretation to the traditional suit,? Paulo Canali, Marketing Director for the brand, explains. Well, given that the scope for growth for brands such as Canali lies in India, and despite the showdown, this is the brand?s second store in Delhi, fifth in India, and is even considering expanding to cities such as Ludhiana. Well, how home grown designers innovate to meet the challenge may well determine their futures, as individuals as Indian menswear designers.