Fashion industry keen to explore young talent: Gen Next designers of LFW

Mumbai, Jan 5 (IANS) The Indian fashion industry is flourishing over the year and it's now become easy for young talent to find space in the industry, say the Gen Next designers of Lakme Fashion Week (LFW) who are going to showcase at the forthcoming Summer-Resort 2017 edition.

Pallavi Singh, Nakita Singh, Soumodeep Dutta, Ishanee Mukherjee & Anirudh Chawla, and Resham Karmchandani and Sanya Suri are the five names who have been selected to showcase their creativity at the fashion week platform that is scheduled to take place from Feb 1- 5 at JioGarden, Bandra-Kurla Complex, here.

For these young faces, finding their own path in the industry has become easier now.

Resham and Sanya of the label The Pot Plant, feel that "every new start up in any industry is challenging and the same goes for fashion industry as well"

"But there are more opportunities now and more platforms to present your own design language and if the aesthetics and concept are unique the industry is welcoming," Resham told IANS.

Added Sanya: "The fashion industry is more receptive now. There has been a paradigm shift in how people perceive labels now. As an industry, we are more open to new talent now and individual design aesthetics. Experimental, minimal, or classic clothing, the realms are co-existing now and it is more about individualism and what resonates with you as an individual."

Gen Next programme, which has given the Indian fashion industry names like Rahul Mishra, Masaba Gupta and Nachiket Barve, is now set to groom its 23rd batch with five promising designers who have been chosen by the members of the LFW advisory board.

Anirudh and Ishanee of the label Poochki, being one of the young names, aggress with the fact that there is no dearth of opportunities for young designers today.

"The fashion industry is flourishing over the years. Dedication and innovation is the key to success in this very competitive industry. We can see a change in the mindset of the consumer. The modern-day consumer is an informed customer and is responsive to good design, and not only to "bling". We can see Pret' coming in a big way," Anirudh told IANS.

Ishanee feels that with platforms such as the Gen-Next programme for budding designers, it is apparent that the industry is keen to explore young talent.

For Nakita, every sphere needs consistency, patience, and hard work to make a space for oneself and the same goes for a young and emerging designer.

Dutta, another new name who is set to venture into the industry, young designers come out with a spirit of youth, creativity, and freedom and hence he feels that "space is never there, you have to stretch boundaries and create your own space."

However he feels that there are more opportunities for new designers today than few years ago. "Nevertheless, the competition has also multiplied. Today, Fashion is a necessity. Customisation has created a need for more designers to cater to the huge population. Multi designer stores also play an important role in supporting young designers who cannot start with a store of their own. The support nowadays is huge, you only need to arrive with your originality and innovation," he told IANS.

Finally for Pallavi, who runs a label called ARCVSH, "People are quite open to change these days. Look at designers like Anavila, Payal Kahndwala who have made a mark in the industry in such a short span of time"