The 15th edition of the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week, India?s oldest, is holding its largest event ever. The Lakme Fashion Week (LFW), which just concluded its latest edition, is well established as the main challenger, drawing from Mumbai?s star power as well as international tie-ups. The last couple of years have seen fashion weeks start in venues such as Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Goa, Pune, even Gurgaon, besides a host of other related events. Surely, this is good news for a nascent sector that has considerable growth prospects and in creating an Indian wave on a global stage, much in the way of the Japanese or the Belgians towards the end of the previous century.
No and no. Indian fashion isn?t actually as much of an oxymoron as, say, Indian food. Its couture end enjoys some inherent strengths, including diverse textile and fabric traditions, strong weaving and designers who lend the contemporary aesthetic to traditional designs and cuts. Institutions such as NIFT have produced a fair number of young designers spread across the country who are pushing the envelope for Indian fashion. The designers are courted and feted by elite social circuits in their cities. They get the occasional sponsored show in the global fashion capitals, even if it is in the tents on the periphery. They have fledgling retail presence in the country and their top two business segments?the Indian wedding season and the West Asian market have both seen only marginal dips compared to the bloodbath elsewhere. Yes, the Indian designer seems to be living the good life, comfortable and well off.
The future may not be as rosy. However, fashion weeks, supposedly trade events, seem to be caught in an image trap. That the sector is inseparable from glamour and celebrities is a given, but what seems forgotten for long is that they are only a means to an end, not the end they seem to have become. The celebrities may be great, possibly the best advertisements for the designers, but the market is still outside. The bridge remains to be crossed for most of India?s top designers, whom critics derisively dismiss as ?shaadi designers?. Despite the token presence of retail sales, the bulk is in the September to March period, when festive and wedding paraphernalia are in demand in full force. The Little Black Dress and her coterie still have some way to go, if not on the ramps, at least in the stores.
The concept of ?Weeks? itself is a Western construct, and one that has been adapted as is for India. As LFW demonstrated by overturning the basis this time around, addressing the immediate season instead of the one half a year later, there are changes that will have to be kept for the Weeks to have a resonance beyond glamour. Most aren?t doing enough business, and despite the best PR efforts, Indian designers are rarely stocked at Harvey Nichols, Bloomingdale?s or Galeries Lafayette except as exotica, almost as costumes.
Western buyers are still extremely stingy in their orders from India, and once the recession set in, in their home markets, the only purpose of coming to India was to take in the experience. ?We are looking around, we like A, B, C designer?s work, but will look at a little more,? is the standard response. They only look for women?s wear, shrugging almost in horror, if Indian menswear is mentioned. Overall, they would rather order from Hidesign, FabIndia and the like to ensure numbers and sleep easy on logistics, they say. Indian designers have to get that right yet, they say sotto voce, apparently going on past experiences. The Western buyer, however, still remains the cynosure of all the designers and the media at the Weeks.
The West is not going to be won over by the sari. In fact, it is the East that has been won over by Western rules of apparel, from Tokyo to Dubai. The search of an Indian designer or Indian couturiers for Western markets seems to be a lost cause. Instead, moderating the template to address a more Indian, or culturally aligned, market might help the sector reach the next level of access and, therefore, growth. How LFW fares in coming seasons will, perhaps, determine whether more radical steps are on their way for fashion weeks. Admittedly, a number of younger designers display the verve to design with the ?lan of their international counterparts and without getting into the tricky balancing of the fashion idioms of the West and India. They need the financial infrastructure support to realise their potential on wider platforms.
Barring a few notable exceptions, such as the development of the Satya Paul label by Genesis Colours, corporatisation remains an idea. The designer is still at the helm of all decisions, creative or logistical. The lack of organised capital and inadequate retail facilities are still a challenge. The Crescent Mall in Delhi is a prime example of mistakes to avoid. The lack of implementation of intellectual property rights sees designers? creations copied at a fraction of the price. Look books are still an alien concept while account books are a joke. Accessories, where top-end retailers, including luxury brands are concentrating, are an afterthought for most Indian Weeks.
Ambition is required for growth, but not when the ultimate desire of the Weeks is to outdo their rivals in newspaper columns. The rival Weeks have worked more at cross-purposes than with any vision of ?Indian fashion?. Their politics and lack of professionalism have made them laughing stocks more often than a sector seeking industry status deserves.