The fashion week, which begins tomorrow, will showcase clothes that are available now and not what will come later.
The fashionista will have to bring forward their date with the Lakme Fashion Week (LFW) this year. India’s oldest fashion week will open tomorrow (Friday), which is earlier than the usual. It is normally held in April every year.
But that’s not the only change that the fashion week organized by Lakme, a Hindustan Lever brand, and IMG, the event management company, is bringing in. Unlike previous years, it would not showcase fashion trends six months in advance, but clothes for the season it is being held in i.e. summer. Experts call it the just-in-time cycle.
It would mean that LFW will coincide with the more high profile fashion week in Paris. But the organizers say it is not a deterrent for foreign buyers as LFW has seen a 77 per cent increase in international buyers registering for the event this year. The theme of resort wear (which is not beach wear), that is in vogue around the world because it is comfortable lifestyle clothing that can be worn for leisure, has ensured international interest does not wane.
Lakme Advisor Anil Chopra says, "Resort wear will play to the strength of others as well. Most of the international buyers for this season are from West Asia who are relatively more optimistic than their counterparts in the US and European countries after the downturn and also whose sensibilities match with India's because of a similar climate."
The just-in-time cycle was waiting to be introduced. The Indian audience has been tilting the balance in favour of a just-in-time fashion week for quite some time. The trade audience of the show -- buyers such as fashion boutiques Kimaya, and designers such as Sabyasachi Mukherjee -- have had end-customers curious about collections that had been paraded at recent fashion weeks, only to find that the products were yet to reach the stores.
LFW till now had showcased the works of designers six months in advance, with stocks moving into stores in time for the season they were meant for. So, an Autumn/Winter collection would be shown at a fashion week held in March/April and be sold in September or later. Chopra says, "For the last three to four Lakme Fashion Weeks, designers have been telling us that they would show the collection of what customers can get in the store now”.
The decision to shift the strategy to a just-in-time cycle was taken once the stakeholders on LFW’s advisory board unanimously voiced the need to change. Says IMG (South Asia) Managing Director and Senior Vice-president Ravi Krishnan, "The lead time of international designers and fashion brands are four to six months. In India it is 30-60 days." The shift in focus was waiting to happen because the Indian fashion industry has a supply chain that requires less lead time than the rest of the world.
While fashion brands elsewhere in the world often base their production off their domestic shores, most Indian designers resort to production within India for their collections, cutting down transport and quality-checking time. But the biggest enabler is the volume that Indian designers clock. Irrespective of the interest shown, volumes are still low when compared with other international markets.
Designers often retail out of plush hotels or high-street boutiques. The most number of stores for designers are 10-15 in India, with established ones preferring to remain more exclusive with just 7-8 stores such as Mukherjee who started his career with the LFW and is swamped with international domestic orders."Compare these numbers with brands such as Prada which is present in 80-90 countries and pan over 500 distribution channels," adds Mukherjee.
He also points out plagiarism that takes off during longer lead times. With small volumes, Indian designers stand to lose out much more than international counterparts. "It is more feasible for us to focus on the Indian audience first, before going out to the west. For me, 90 per cent of my turnover comes from India. Most of us are not yet geared to handle large numbers in both the markets," says Mukherjee. The speedier delivery time in sync with LFW will also ensure that design boutiques or the trade buyers would not have to spend as much as earlier on promotions and can rely on the coverage of the event itself for spiking demand.
The just-in-time cycle would also tax the designer's production facilities which are often small scale. Shorter lead times formalised by high-wattage events such as LFW will leave little room for delays. However, manufacturing is also gaining steam for Indian designers. Chopra points out "designers are tying up with garment exporters who had been smarting from the slump in demand after the downturn to use their manufacturing facilities in a sort of contract manufacturing."
Large organised retailers such as Westside too are propping up the sails for the designers. Various tie-ups with retail brands such as Killer (for a line of designer jeanswear) and Westside (lines by designers at lower prices) facilitated by such trade events also open doors to volumes and manufacturing for designers. "We need to spend a few years in bringing fashion deliveries closer to the season to garner volume. This would then lead to larger scale, more confidence and greater visibility for the designer,”
The footsteps of Zara, which brought the just-in-time fashion in vogue, might become less formidable to follow for Indian fashion.
