Designs on a good buy

FASHION: Satisfied buyers give the thumbs up to this edition of WLIFW.

The champagne has been drunk, the clothes packed away and the venue, which until Sunday bustled with activity, wears a deserted look. Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week (WLIFW) is over after five days of lightheated fun and lots of serious business.

Says Sumeet Nair, executive director, FDCI, "After speaking to some prominent buyers, the picture that is emerging in terms of business is that each has placed orders ranging from one crore to about eight crore rupees."

But to this he adds a caveat, "One, however, cannot quantify the business in terms of only what happens in the span of these five days because many fruitful relationships have been formed during WLIFW like the designers who are going and have gone to the New York Fashion Week, the London Fashion Week and so on. These buyers also tend to order from the designers they chose during the fashion week through the year."

WLIFW was organised at a cost of Rs 6 crore, according to sources familiar with the finances of the show.

Madhu Pallo, who runs a fashion store in Hong Kong by the same name, says, "From this event I have bought about Rs 15 lakh worth of clothes. Overall I buy about Rs 6 crore worth of clothes from different designers."

When asked if there is a market for Indian designerwear in Hong Kong, she says, "There is a huge market for what the Indian designers are making."

This sentiment was echoed by many of the international buyers at the event.

Mitsue Yamagishi from Sun Motoyama, which runs a store in Tokyo's fashionable Ginza district and stocks big international designers, says, "We have brought 400 pieces from this event from different designers. We have been stocking Indian designers for the last seven years and they do very well in Japan."

Buyers weren't the only people busy during the event sewing up business deals.

Lucia Cordeirc, who was in Delhi as a representative for the Madrid Fashion Week, had this to say: "The motive of my visit is to work out an arrangement with FDCI so that we can get Indian designers to show at the Madrid Fashion Week. We also want to work out a student exchange programme with NIFT. We feel there is a huge market for Indian designers in Spain. India is a culture that is respected and there are lots of designers doing a good job."

Betal Jassim, who along with her husband opened the first Indian designer store in west Asia in Kuwait in 2003, feels that the work of Indian designers appeals to west Asia as it is modest in comparison to what the West is selling.

She says, "We come every time to look for new talent. Our minimum order is about 150 pieces from each designer and it can go up to about 400 pieces."

Their sucess in Kuwait has now emboldened them to open their next store in Singapore. Says Jassim, "We have studied the Singapore market and there is a demand for Indian fashion." After Singapore, their next stop could be China.

If there is general consensus that Indian fashion wear has both appeal and saleability in diverse markets like Kuwait, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore, Japan and Spain, there is also consensus that designers have hiked their prices to a point that these buyers are now buying fewer pieces.

Says Jassim, "If earlier I could buy something for $400, now it's $700. So we buy fewer pieces." Disagrees Corderic, "When one is selling a design brand, price has no relevance."

With more and more appreciation and orders coming from national and international buyers, Indian designers are unlikely to bring down their prices anytime soon. But then looking good is an expensive business.