The just concluded India Fashion Week coincided with the much bigger New York Fashion week, but the coincidence seemed to affect the business opportunity for the Indian designers, since many potential customers kept away from New Delhi.
New Delhi, Sep 10 : The just concluded India Fashion Week coincided with the much bigger New York Fashion week, but the coincidence seemed to affect the business opportunity for the Indian designers, since many potential customers kept away from New Delhi.
Both the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week in New Delhi and the fashion extravaganza in New York opened on September 5, and now many feel that the organisers should have been more careful while fixing the dates.
Several designers expressed their unhappiness with the 'clash' in dates, as they felt losing out on international buyers.
"I think it was slightly badly timed but I hope things are better next season," said Gauri Bajoria, a designer.
Shyam Narayan Prasad, another designer said: "No doubt there were less international buyers here but we did manage two orders from London based stores. I won't say I am happy but not bad also."
Not only the potential international buyers, many notable Indian fashion designers were missing from the scene here, as they were all in New York to showcase their designs.
While Ashish Soni showcased his designs in New York, Manish Arora and Anamika Khanna will become the first Indians to unveil their collections at the Paris Fashion Week.
However, Fashion Council of India justified the present schedule saying that the calendar of international fashion is always packed, and at anytime the Indian Fashion Week would have coincided with any big international event.
"The business of fashion is not only with international buyers. Over 80 percent of the business is in this country. So, I don't think we need to look west at all, if we don't want to," said Rathi Vinay Jha, Director-General of the Fashion Design Council of India.
If the event had been preponed to August or postponed to October there would have still been a clash, Jha added.
By the time the New York Fashion Week ends on September 12, the stage will be set for fashion weeks in London and Paris, which follow, in quick succession.
Over 40 designers showcased their spring and summer collections. The show was held for the first time at Pragati Maidan.
Two decades ago, haute couture was a word that barely existed in Indian vocabulary and fashion stopped at ethnic homespun cotton outfits made by neighbourhood tailors.
Today the fashion design industry is worth 1.8 billion dollars, growing at 20-30 percent in the 35 billion dollars global fashion market.
ANI