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Comments by critics recently has shed new light on the Indian fashion scene, which was once believed to be going places. "Well it is still doing so but not in the manner it should have caught on" said one socialite interviewed at the recently concluded fashion week in New Delhi.
According to her all the exposure only gives the designers personal milage but does not actually attract foreign buyers on a large scale giving designers opportunities at securing orders to sell ready-to-wear off the peg at retail shops.
Which should be the case agrees some, who has been involved in the apparel trade over the years. According to them what actually happens is that India has become a window to on-going whole sale garment industrialists outside the country both in Europe and Asia.
Like in the case of the Nehru collar or the Kurutha top, which made waves all over the world. But the truth is that; these and other trends with an Indian flavour were also popularised by top designers at shows similar to what concluded in Delhi recently. Though the idea was picked up and circulated worldwide, hardly any of those designers secured orders.
Even the orders that were placed, it is learnt; was placed in other countries where those principals already had their factories. Sri Lanka, Bangladesh or Korea for that matter. Very few international brand names actually has sub-contractors in India owing to red tape that one has to often cut through. The reason being certain government policies with regard to foreign investors.
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Even though critics are questioning as to whether India and its designers have secured its due place in the international arena of the rag trade, after years of presenting fashion collections by scores of designers at shows similar to the 'Wills India fashion Week'; it is no secret that certain traditional cuts and styles, in addition to embroidery, sequin and bead work that extends a total Indian identity, has managed to get a grasp not only on annual catwalk shows in Europe but also on the global garment trade.
Fashion weeks similar to the one that concluded recently is fast becoming popular amongst up and coming designers who believe that it is one that they can qualify to enter the international fashion arena. "This is all make believe stuff" said an observer stating that designers who are showing at international fashion events are doing so either by using the influence they have with foreign contacts or simply at their own expense.
As much as Indian designers have contributed in their own strength to the international fashion scene, most contemporary designers are showing signs of actually copying the west in a large scale. Most of the western styles and trends that are appearing on the catwalk each season has reflected influenced by designs that have already been shown the same year by designers in the west.
This is mostly done to attract the local clientele. The Indian fashion conscious woman or man is very much informed of the current happenings in the west. But the ability to order them while they are still in vogue can be afforded only by a few. So what actually happens at local shows is, in addition to some original work by already established designers there are lot of new designers who showcase their work consisting of outright re-productions of styles shown that year by leading designers of the west.
Patronised by the rich and the famous
Today India has a wide range of designers and they are all doing well. As in all other trades, designers don't have to look outside their soil for buyers. Almost every designer is patronised by the rich and the famous, paying high dividends in return.
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Other than large apparel groups that produce ready-to-wear garments under different labels, individual designers have no capacity to harbour into intricate distribution networks.
So most of their creations remain sold at retail in their own boutiques. This calls for designers to open up outlets at popular locations if they are to cater to a wider market. In the past while only Bombay or Delhi stood marked as fashion capitals today this view has changed.
Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai has also opened up in a big way for established designers to move-in with their creations to those cities. India has been a country that harped a great deal on the note of good and colourful dressing since time immemorial.
Though it all began with a strict accent on styles and colours based on Indian traditions with time though most of those flavours have remained a lot of western trends and attributes have managed to make its way into the very heart of the contemporary Indian fashion scene.
This trait, according to some; may be one reason how fashion actually became so widespread in the country or otherwise India would have remained with its long standing traditional clothes in the face of fashion. The Gaagrah and Choli, Churidar, Kurtha and the variety of shawls and turbans and other head gear.
Elaborate traditional jewellery and bold make-up with flowers adorning the hair twirled in to long plaits. These are all what India reflected as home grown fashion. In fact they were all rather home grown traditional way of day to day living.
What we are witnessing today is a follow-up to all the above, ultimately has avenued out into multitudes of styles and trends still retaining its past glory in most cases. But it is also not unusual to be caught by surprise by designers who come out with a line of clothes that depict a total western flavour to it. In fact some of them continue full time, working as designers basing their styles on western trends.
It stands un-argued that the Indian designers have steered ahead keeping abreast with whatever that was happening in that stream in the west. In fact, it has even at one time; acted as a reference book to some fashion leaders of that part of the world and the influence became very evident.
But what critics seem to be saying is that designers need to base their collections to attract wholesale buyers to these catwalk shows that are becoming more regular event-wise annually, or else they feel that further evolution of fashion within this vast country will come to a standstill making it remain as a past time of the rich and famous besides retaining its vast patronage by the starlets of the country's tinsel town Bollywood.
The direction in which the Indian fashion scene is slipping towards can be fathomed by the words of famous hot selling paperback novelist Shoba De, who upon answering questions by the media present at the Wills India Fashion Week said "Everybody present here, is here today because they have nothing better to do or just to be seen at the event, besides that the show itself falls short of serving its purpose of working as a commercially viable platform for participating designers.
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