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Indian designers seduce global buyers
Indian designers kicked off ready-to-wear week on Wednesday by unveiling their collections for autumn-winter 2005 with trademark exuberance and a stunning riot of colours.
Indian designers kicked off ready-to-wear week on Wednesday by unveiling their collections for autumn-winter 2005 with trademark exuberance and a stunning riot of colours.
The high priestess of Indian fashion, 56-year-old Ritu Kumar sent out an autumn-winter 2005 ready-to-wear collection fit for Kashmiri village belles and Rajasthani gypsies, but carefully rejigged for the modern city woman.
Kumar indulged her passion for brilliant technicolor with an electric blue and red Kashmiri-style "ambi" (long coat) and short layered chiffon skirts for jet-set parties. For daytime, colorful peasant tops and jacquard ponchos over skinny jeans did the trick.
"My eyes are still swimming with colour and Indian prints," Georgina Dougnac, Paris-based Le Bon Marche's women's wear buying manager said after the shows.
"I particularly like the bright shades found in Indian designs. In Europe designers are more conservative, they do not use colour with such verve. I think Indian creations can create a splash," she said, adding that she would be placing an experimental order.
Over 160 buyers including Saks Fifth Avenue from the United States and Selfridges and Harrods from Britain are trawling at India's fashion week.
Hundreds of fashion journalists, including from the Middle East, have also converged on New Delhi for the runway madness, with about 40 catwalk shows on the agenda, the Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI) said.
Delhi designer Rina Dhaka hooked the Indian fashion crowd on Wednesday with an unusual mix of carefully crafted music from late soul legend Ray Charles to trance from Buddha Bar and Sounds of the Asian Underground.
For Dhaka, the Indian woman is forever chic -- sexy and bohemian at the same time, and most definitely living in Bollywood, Manhattan and Paris.
"Dhaka's stunning Indian models in lycra-stretch microminis can make a priest change his vows. Her clothes are pure fantasy. If her clothes leave you cold, you have to be a very cold inside," said British store buyer Jude Knight clutching his heart dramatically.
"My clothes may have looked more sheer because of the stage lights," said Dhaka who has designed bikinis for Britain's Selfridges.
Dhaka's clothes are glamorous and provocative and not for the timid, with lots of sequins, Korean lycra and embroidery adorning feminine, figure-hugging cuts.
"In India it is very easy to do the large numbers. I have never faced a problem in shipping out a big order for Selfridges in London or stores in the US," said Dhaka.
"It is the middle numbers which are a killer. Unfortunately, as Indian designers we get a lot of orders which are not small or big but middling. The medium-size orders take the same energy out of you and the volumes are not that remunerative," she said.
The Indian clothing industry is estimated to be worth 12 billion dollars -- half of it exports to destinations like the United States, Europe and the Middle East.
But the fashion design industry is still nascent and is estimated to be worth around 50 million dollars.
Fashion week continues till Tuesday with shows from Rohit Bal, Ranna Gill and Ashish Pandey.
