IFW gears for quota-free world

India's biggest fashion and lifestyle extravaganza starts Wednesday with the usual blitzkrieg. But this will be a particularly important fashion week for the industry, with all eyes focused on how it will cope in a post-quota world.

India's biggest fashion and lifestyle extravaganza starts Wednesday with the usual blitzkrieg. But this will be a particularly important fashion week for the industry, with all eyes focused on how it will cope in a post-quota world.

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In its sixth year, what is shown at the Lakme India Fashion Week would have critical importance not only for the growth of the country's nascent $50-60 million industry but for its very survival.

"The competition is knocking at our doors," said fashion doyenne Ritu Kumar.

"It's now or never. Are we going to be able to hold on to and protect our ancient textile and handcraft textile traditions or are we going to be swamped by the Western labels?

"We will know the answer soon," Kumar said.

The dismantling of the textile quotas under the World Trade Organisation rules has given India with a unique opportunity and also a critical threat.

For years, in the quota regime, Indian fashion designers weren't really affected because they only did high-end, value-added, labour intensive garments in small quantities.

What was affected was the larger textile and garments export industry, estimated at around $15 billion, whose cheap readymade garments compete with the mass manufacture of China.

The total textile industry in the country is worth around $41.5 billion.

But with the fall of the quota-regime, the hitherto protected fashion industry faces the might of the world's biggest luxury labels at its doorstep.

Among those who have come a-calling are Tommy Hilfiger, Chanel and Ermenegildo Zegna who have set up shop in the country. Others eyeing opportunity include Armani and Calvin Klein.

"Who is going to buy Indian designers, some of whose quality maybe be a little suspect, when they have easy access to the best international brands?" said Vinod Kaul, former head of the apex Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI).

"In that sense this is a very important fashion week. This year, the fashion week will separate the men from the boys."

That is crucial because Indian fashion and fashion designers are still seen as part of an entertainment industry in many quarters. At the government level, they still don't have the much valued 'industry status'.

Even this year, major TV channels are running debates on whether the fashion week is a gigantic party or a serious business event. The fact that such questions are still asked is cause enough for concern.

Glamour and revelry are integral part of fashion weeks, and indeed fashion. But that never cuts emphasis from the seriousness of big business. That is a lesson Indian fashion must further push.

According to McKinsey, with the quotas gone, India will push its share from four percent to 6.5 percent by 2008 in the $248-billion global fashion market.

Some estimates suggest that in the US India's textile market share would leap from four percent to about 15 percent and in the European Union, from five percent to nine percent.

But many fear that it might also mean smaller Indian labels getting gobbled up by the giants; that India's prowess in handcrafts wouldn't hold out for long before slicker, money-bags competition; that even if it does, sooner or later, the artisans would be bought over by the international giants.

"How long will Indian brands be able to hold out against the big names? It's a thought that's high on many minds," said designer Raghavendra Rathore.

Rathi Vinay Jha, the present director general of the FDCI, is more optimistic.

"India is one the few countries in the world that has supported and nurtured hand skills. Today there is enough room for foreign brands, as also our designers, to access such craft persons.

"Growing demands must be met with encouragement to such craft persons with assured employment and the facility to upgrade."