India weaving

Major international fashion brands such as Valentino, John Galliano, Collette, Easson Pearson and Zara outsource work like embroidery and apparel manufacturing to India.

To bring more such businesses to India, textile minister Shahnawaz Hussain conceived of an "Inspiration India" idea. It entailed bringing Indian textile outsourcing to the forefront as days of quota restrictions are numbered and China and Taiwan continue to beat India in the outsourcing business.

To showcase India's competency in apparel designing and textile manufacturing, the Ministry of Textiles and the National Institute of Fashion Technology (Nift) is organising a three-day event (March 29-31) called Dsyn 04 at Delhi's Pragati Maidan. An Australian fashion event company, Australian Fashion Innovators (AFI) will handle the international sponsorship and publicity for the event.

"The whole idea is to bring together fabric suppliers, designers and manufacturers under one roof. We're trying to attract fashion retailers and brand owners to source production from India. It's a total supply chain solution," says Jim Lock, CEO of AFI. The company produces and markets the well-known Mercedes Australian Fashion Week. AFI is a subsidiary of the $25-million Lock Group which has interests in advertising and public relations.

At the Dysn show, visitors will be able to see nearly 137 shortlisted fabric and design collections created by different companies and designers respectively. It will include designer Madhu Jain's ensemble created from bamboo fabric as well as a host of other handloom weaves.

Fabric and garment manufacturers such as DuPont, Reliance, Grasim Industries, Tencil and Levi Strauss among others are expected to participate. The Dsyn team has also been on a model hunt around the country for the nine separate fashion shows that will highlight men's and women's wear as well as kidswear and sportswear over the three-day event.

While about 30 foreign buyers are expected to show up for the meet, the Ministry of Textiles is spending Rs 3 crore on the event and value of the garments collection is about Rs 6-7 crore. The sponsors of the show are Air India, Crowne Plaza among others.

But how is the show different from a regular fashion show? Gauri Kumar, director general of Nift says: "So far we've only seen sporadic efforts to give Indian fashion and fabric a platform "" by and large the industry works in isolation. This is the first time the garment manufacturers, fabric suppliers and designers will come together in a big way."