Selfridges, one of the biggest stores in Britain, did an India promotion last year. It was such a success that Tony Morgan and Harvey Sutton, designers for the store, are back in India for the Lakme Fashion Week and are scouting for talent. If they are impressed enough, designers like Anshu Arora Sen and Araiya could be invited to have a dedicated booth at the London and Manchester stores, just like Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla.
Selfridges is not the only one. More designers are going abroad now than ever before. Komal Mirchandani, whose boutique Sanskrit opened in Hong Kong just two months ago, has already done such good business that she is back for more and is contemplating opening stores featuring Indian designers in Shanghai and Southeast Asia.
Sanskrit stocks Malini Ramani, Suneet Varma, Rina Dhaka and Payal Singh and is thinking of getting clothes designed by Anshu Arora. Its customers are mostly Chinese, some Europeans and Indians. The Chinese love Indian colours.