Fashion’s backbone
Posted by Lucky on Feb 5, 2010
INDIAN fashion can be broadly classified into two grades: Devdas, version 2, and Dev RELATED ARTICLES
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D. The Devdas designers are those – and they form the bulk of the big names — who have made their money and fame from atrociously priced, gawdy wedding trousseau, desi style, straight out of the sets of the Sanjay Leela Bhansali film, and often, laughably, passed off as haute couture.
No doubt the craze among rich desis, resident or non-resident, for the big fat Indian wedding has a lot to do with the fattening of their bank accounts. Some designers have even dressed the likes of Hillary Clinton, Cherie Blair, Liz Hurley, the Japanese premier’s wife, Miyuki Hatoyama, and Madonna in opulent saris or salwar suits, the blinding glitter of which can do a Christmas tree proud.
In the Dev D class, most have global aspirations — and pretensions — churning out what passes for western dresses, a few — among them Manish Arora, Rajesh Pratap Singh, Pradeep Soni, Sabyasachi Mukherjee, Rina Dhaka — managing to sell clothes to foreign customers who are either India fans or looking for oriental exotica. Only a handful actually have done well enough — or found enduring acceptance — to have fashion stores abroad returning to them season after season, year after year.
Does that make the Indian fashion designer a global phenomenon like, say, some of their fraternal friends from Japan?
No.
India has a long way to go before it is acknowledged as a global fashion powerhouse. Sunil Sethi, president of the Fashion Development Council of India, has a ready explanation — or blame, if you like, to pile on to someone. And that someone, according to him, is the government, which has not really actively encouraged and supported fashion or recognised it as an industry.
His reasoning is: Indian designers haven’t had enough global exposure. They do not take part in international fashion events as often as they should. Their participation should not just increase but be continuous, season after season, year after year. It costs a fortune to mount a ramp show in an international event.
“Not everyone can afford it. Government encouragement and support can help us a lot. Countries like Japan and Italy made it big because they had government bodies to support and sponsor them,” says Sethi.
Despite this, Sethi is optimistic that some day Indian fashion will rule. It is getting global eyeballs, slowly and surely. “The way fashion is prospering, we will definitely rule the fashion world, maybe 10 years from now.”
Some individual designers have already made a global mark, though. Sethi names, for example, Rina Dhaka, Kavita Bhartiya, Leena Ashima, Rohit Bal, Rana Gill and J J Vallaya who are much sought after in West Asia. He does not say so, but by West Asia he essentially means Dubai, as the rest of the region is still in the fashion boondocks. And then, Dubai’s fairly affluent expatriate Indians can be relied upon to buy Indian.
A few milestones need to be covered before we make it elsewhere. Sethi believes almost the first thing Indian designed clothes need is the right silhouette. He is too polite to say so, but let’s make it clear to the fashion illiterate: the silhouette of a dress means its basic shape, which comes first from imagination and then from the cut. In other words, Indian designers do not know how to shape a dress to appeal to the discerning fashionista.
India churns out almost 3,000 fashion students every year, who need to be trained properly in the ways foreign designers think, design, cut and sew.
Second, almost all Indian fashion houses — still bit of a stretch to call them that — are no better than neighbourhood kirana shops. “Our designers lack organisational skills. They should work with multinationals or companies that run on corporate lines. This will free them from running their organisations and managing marketing and supply chains. They will then get more time to focus solely on creativity,” says Sethi.
Abhay Gupta, executive director of Blues Clothing Company, agrees. Corporate participation can help designers do better. “We (designers) will then stick to the deliverable and become more focused on the product in terms of quality and consistency.” He thinks that corporatisation is the only reason why Japan and Italy could rule the global ramps.
Nida Mahmood, a young designer and FC columnist, says Indian fashion is still in its baby days. “We are only in the experimental stage and look up to the international brands as our study material.” But it is growing up, specially with the entry of bands of new, young designers. They do a lot of experimentation and make it bold to do what they want.
But she too harps on professionalism. By that she means meeting deadlines, being more focused, serious and able to plan ahead.
Sanjeev Mohanty, managing director of Benetton, looks at India’s failure to be there from a totally different perspective. He sees it as a cultural problem, which separates us from western countries. “From the cultural point of view, the Indian sense of dressing has not been very good. They just don’t care much about their clothes.”
People in Japan, Italy and France are fashion crazy. They not only want to wear the latest, but also know about the latest and the evolving trends. They save money just to buy a Louis Vuitton bag. Even ordinary people do that. Not so in India. The middle class here don’t even know of Louis Vuitton, much less want to have it. “We are at least 20 years away from that.”
Another problem, as he sees it, is that Indian designers still work as individuals, each a lone ranger, banking on only his or her ideas. Team ideation rarely works here or is even encouraged. “They don’t work for large audiences. They should expand their vision and develop big ideas or cater to a larger consumer base. Their designed clothes should have the appeal which everyone can carry.” But maybe we are getting there, gradually, he says.
