Where selling overtakes sensation

Fashion week this year saw much less glitz, and much more business

The end of another fashion week, and all's right with the world. The media has had a field day, with controversy and colour enough to keep journalists busy for weeks; the designers look tired but triumphant; and even the buyers seem to have had a good time.

The buyers, in fact, are what set this LIFW apart from all the rest. Everyone is unanimous: this year has marked a shift in the Indian fashion trade, from a glamour industry with front rows being occupied almost entirely by starlets and celebrities, to a serious business with a greater eye on buying and selling. "Goodbye socialites, hello buyers," as one designer put it.

Sunil Sethi of Alliance Merchandising agrees, "There has definitely been more substance this year, and less socialising. Very few designers are doing dramatic lines "" even someone like Rohit Bal has decided to tone it down. I think Indian designers are realising that business (which is what LIFW should be about) is all about wearability and consistency."

However, there was another trend that was pervasive at LIFW this year: the desire to appeal to Western buyers. It has been a great sign for domestic designers that buyers come back every year, and this year, with representatives from Harrods, Selfridges and Saks Fifth Avenue, seemed to be our best year yet.

But what do these buyers look for? According to Elisabeth Pederson from Selfridges, "We're looking for something different. Something with an Indian feel, but in a Western silhouette "" a combination of the two. I would say around 30 per cent of the designers now have this quality here."

Michael Fink, the buyer from Saks Fifth Avenue, is more cautious about committing himself: "I don't look for Indian-ness, I just want something original," he insists.

The names many buyers dropped cropped up again and again: Wendell Rodricks, Raghavendra Rathore, Rajesh Pratap Singh and Ashish Soni "" designers with a definite Indian feel, but whose creations can be worn in any context.

While both Fink and Pederson claimed that many designers here had what they were looking for, and Harrods has also confirmed a couple of orders (for example to Tarun Tahiliani and Phalguni and Shane Peacock), this trend had many domestic buyers grumbling.

"I think the domestic market has been completely ignored," says Nupur Gupta, a buyer from Raymond's Be:. "Last year, 13 of our designers took part in fashion week. And this year six of our designers, including five from our pret line, are not. Pret is being completely sidelined, despite the fact LIFW is supposed to be all about pret and diffusion lines. Designers seem to have scaled their lines up, which makes it more difficult for us, since we need watered-down pret lines. Also, the rush to appeal to the West has meant more ethnocentric lines, which again is not what we look for."

Despite this, in the short 12 years that Indian fashion has been on the map, we have arguably come a long way.

And despite some niggles (for instance, pret and diffusion lines are not clearly defined, and nor are seasons "" domestic buyers are looking for fall/winter 2005 while international buyers look for spring/summer 2006 "" and we would probably all be a lot better off with an informed media that doesn't concentrate so much on the sensational and the glitzy; in most fashion weeks abroad, most, except very serious, journalists aren't even allowed in).

Already, in Middle Eastern and some Far Eastern markets, Indian designers are successful. And it may just be a matter of time before we conquer the West "" let's just hope that with all our international aspirations we do not forget the largest market for our designers "" the one right here at home.