Back to Fashion

I keep hearing how thanda and lacklustre fashion week was for many who attended, but the truth about this fashion week – if you ask me – was that it was spot on. Normally, it feels more like wedding than a trade event. Not this time. On 27th October, the last day of the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week, I bumped into designer after designer, and each one commented on how sales were better than ever.

Fashion week is finally turning into a trade event. The venue, Paragti Maidan, needs a bit of a facelift, but gives the event a feel of business. The large space it provides meant the stalls (the main space for business; where designers display their clothes on racks for buyers) were given the due space they needed. And with shows starting at 2pm, there was plenty of time for buyers and designers to concentrate on placing and taking the orders.

The absence of senior names like Rajesh Pratap Singh, Rohit Bal, and Ranna Gill was a blessing in disguise to the young designers, and names like Anand Kabra, Prashant Verma, Arjun Saluja, Rahul Misra came to the forefront. It also meant that most of our page 3 regulars (women who normally only turn up for the big names) were missing from the event. The focus was on fashion. There were hardly any Bollywood showstoppers, so the dailies had no choice but to focus on the clothes. A refreshing and welcome change.

I have to admit that as one of the few journalists who have been attending fashion week since it began over ten years ago, this was first time I did not feel shattered after the week ended. I did not attend one fashion party, and am actually looking forward to the next fashion week in March!



PS This was also one of Tarun Tahilani's most focused and controlled shows to date, a fitting ending to this edition of Wills India Fashion Week. (Above is the lovely Chitranganda walking the ramp for him)

A Time for India

The October Issue hits the stands today. And while all over the world it’s about the September Issue, in India it is the October issue which really is the bumper edition. The month marks the start of the festive season, the wedding season is reaching its peak, and of course, it’s the time when many of us are just in the mood to shop.
And the new trend for October – it’s a return to India, a return to heritage albeit in a modern interpretation. At Lakme Fashion Week I noticed that nearly every designer showed a sari, though in their own style. And I feel that is what has kept the sari alive while other national costumes have died. As constant as the appeal of the sari is, there is also a freshness to it with designers interpreting it differently – be it Anand Kabra’s lehenga sari, Anamika Khanna’s trouser sari or Tarun Tahilani’s goddess sari.
Seeing the sari take centrestage at fashion week also made me realise that Indian designers might finally be getting it. For years at an Indian fashion week we have seen watered down versions of outfits from the catwalks of Milan, Paris, London, and New York. And my question has always been why would we try and do something that clearly the West does better than us? Why don’t we concentrate on what we can do better than anyone else? Our knowledge of drape, colour, fabric, and surface ornamentation is richer than any other. When you buy British fashion, you know it is going to be quirkier, American fashion tends be sportier, the Italians are the tsars of tailoring, and the Parisians know chic better than anyone else.
And while no Indian may be developing a handwriting in fashion; something there has richness, a feel of crafts and vibrancy that truly is unique. We should focus on that and not try and do something we can never be the best at!

(Pics Courtesy: Harper's bazaar India)