Hyderabadi designers lacking pan-Indian recognition

Hyderabad today has umpteen numbers of design-houses, shopping malls and boutiques. One common feature, however, is that among all the designer-wear available at retail houses and stores, creations from city-based designers are conspicuous by their absence.

Many students who graduate from the increasing number of fashion designing institutes in the city, therefore, look at launching themselves from Delhi, Mumbai or Bangalore and not Hyderabad, as then it is easier to be perceived as a designer with a pan India appeal and therefore get more shelf-space.

This, despite the fact that the market for designer-wear in Hyderabad is growing at a steady clip.

As Govind Srikhande, chief operating officer of Shoppers' Stop, says, "The response from Hyderabad since the launch of Buzz, our new fashion concept, has been very encouraging. Hyderabad has become an up-market and fashion and style conscious city."

However, Shoppers' Stop stocks creations of only nationally known designers like Rohit Bal, Rocky S and Raghavendra Rathore in its boutique, Buzz.

Srikhande says, "Buzz was started with the intention of housing creations of the top 10 designers of India and Hyderabad-based designers, unfortunately, do not feature among them."

Designer boutique Elahe also stocks creations of around 40 designers in its store. However, according to Rajiv Shroff, its owner and manager, only three or four city-based designers' creations enjoy shelf-space in the boutique.

"Customers today, do not want to compromise. So if they can get creations of national level designers, why would they want to go for local designers?" Shroff reasons.

"This apart, the finesse and styling of a national designer's creations are better," he adds. "But there are a few local designers like Anand Kabra and Vinita Pittie who have made it big as well," Shroff says. Shroff also owns Oorja, another multi-designer retail boutique.

City-based fashion designer Nitika, however, rebuts Shroff's argument on the quality issue. "There is a general perception among such stores and boutiques that local designers' creations are not on par with the national level ones. But the fact is that the local designers are very creative, although they need to get more professional in their work. This apart, city-based designers face the problem of costly labour as well, which ends up making their products costlier," she adds.

"For instance, if you have to get hand embroidery done on the neck and the sleeves in the city it will cost a minimum of Rs 350, but in places like Delhi, the entire piece can be hand-embroidered for Rs 500," Nitika explains.

"That is why, designers from Delhi can afford to charge less for their creations compared to us, and therefore, sell more," she adds.

Zubin Vakil, another popular designer in the city, says, "Taking into consideration this aspect of costly skilled labour, various fashion designing institutes like Hamstech, have now started teaching the nuances of garment production to the students, so that they do not have to depend on skilled labour always."

"Beadwork and embroidery, therefore, are today not restricted only to the supposedly lower strata of the society," he adds.

"But this is just one side of the problem," Vakil says. "The fact is that many city-based designers do not know how to market themselves well. It is the typical laidback Hyderabadi attitude," he adds.

"The media also does not focus on the creativity of designers, from cities apart from Delhi and Mumbai. That is why, I guess, Hyderabad is known just for its pearls, biryani, IT and flyovers and not for its creative talent," Vakil says.

"That may be the reason why local designers are not perceived to be on par with designers from elsewhere," he adds.