Exclusivity in Indian fashion hurts business

By Puja Gupta

New Delhi, Sep 18 (IANSlife) Exclusivity in Indian fashion has worked to the disadvantage of the country's apparel industry keeping it from achieving its full potential, says Jaspreet Chandok, Vice President and Head of Fashion, IMG Reliance, the organiser of the Lakme Fashion Week (LFW), which completed two decades this year.

"If you look at the apparel industry, across its various types, it is approximately worth Rs 7 lakh crore. A lot of it is dominated by wedding wear. And the Indian designer wear industry in its totality is not more than roughly Rs 2,000 crore. You see there is a significantly large market, which has not been tapped, simply because there hasn't been enough focus towards inclusive fashion or may be the focus is towards exclusivity," Chandok told IANSlife.

"The whole narrative of Indian craft is based on the fact that 95 per cent of all hand-woven textiles are made in India. It can push us through globally and be the showcase of Indian luxury and I think we have been putting in more action in the last few years to get Indian design and craft showcased on a global platform. And hopefully, it will become a trend globally to buy Indian wear," said Chandok.

According to Chandok, "IMG Reliance looks at diverse menus, use of technology to build a narrative, tell a story and showcase fashion in a visually different way to make every event different from the other. What started as a mere fashion event for the company, has now become a platform to develop the industry as a whole."

"When we started, our significant intent was to only look at the fashion week. But it changed in the last few years as we started looking at it as an important platform where there are actions and conversations happening 365 days a year," he added.

IMG Reliance has now become an industry body that develops the business of fashion, for emerging and senior designers and craftsmen . All efforts by LFW to take talent out of India and showcase it at global platform have been a resounding success.

Chandok believes that the rise of digital in the last few years has been a key change in terms of how people want to communicate in the industry. "The consumers are becoming much more aware of their choices, whether it is B2B or B2C sales. The way the industry communicates with consumers, fashion week communicates with the industry and the consumers have all changed," he added.

(Puja Gupta can be contacted at puja.g@ians.in)