Fashion creates thrills for the designers
MIL/FE, Apr 11, 2006. By Leher Kala
Apr. 11 - A 100D-odd designers participated in the two fashion weeks held in Mumbai and Delhi recently, but only a handful could strike a chord with the international fashion community, as per FE.
According to Leher Kala , three names cropped up repeatedly: Manish Arora, Sabyasachi Mukherjee and Anshu Arora Sen. The rest can fall all over themselves trying to impress the western buyer, but they will continue to be trousseau designers for the Page 3 types in Delhi and Mumbai.
What differentiates Arora, Sen and Mukherjee from their peers is they're not trying to better the standard black pants, cocktail dresses and business suits made famous by Calvin Klein and Donna Karan. They realise they can't. So they're offering what they understand best: blazing Indian colours, ethnic embroidery and a distinct Indian sensibility, toned down for the Western palette. At Arora's show, models walked to violinists playing 'Rang De Basanti' on a ramp emblazoned with autorickshaws.
His skirts had the Qutab Minar and India Gate embroidered on them. It was a celebration of all things Indian and he got a standing ovation. Arora, usually seen in a T-shirt that says 'Ladies Tailor', famously stated six years ago, "If nobody likes my clothes, I'll wear them myself." No chance of that. As Didier Grumbach, co-founder of Yves Saint Laurent, put it, "We're here for something new that might appeal to our European clients."
Indian designers have repeatedly failed while trying to recreate a pret or ready-to-wear collection on western lines. Suneet Varma's Spice and Rohit Bal's Balance can't compete with Mango, a high fashion Spanish brand which does sales of over Rs 2 lakh a day from just one Delhi outlet. Malini Ramani, who's been participating in India Fashion Week for six years, acquired her first T-shirt making machine barely a year ago. However, her mirror work kurtis and sequined pencil pants got her an invitation to participate in a San Francisco Fashion Week.
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