As buyers get busy signing deals, promoters are looking around for designers to sign on. | |
| The Ritu Kumar show was supposed to be the highlight of the the second day at the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week. Only it wasn't quite. |
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| Though the designer came up with a rather unsual all white-and-crochet line as her introductory piece, her subsequent lines seemed fairly predictable, at least for anyone who has been following the designer's work in India. |
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| The buyers, neverthless, seemed happy enough. Sunil Sethi, CEO of Alliance Merchandising, who represents some of the biggest stores worldwide, was all praise for her collection, in particular her phulkari-inspired coats "which should make any Indian woman used to her silks feel proud", even though he admitted that Kumar's couture was not really targetted at the international market. |
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| "Ritu Kumar has perhaps the largest number of stores in India but she is not focused internationally. We have asked her several times, but the kind of stuff she does is not suited to international requirements," Sethi added. |
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| Suran Goonatilake, the man whose non-profit Centre for Fashion Entreprise funds London-based new designers (Manish Arora is the latest "intern" at the Entreprise that also handles Basso & Brooke, the fastest growing British designers today), has also been looking at the shows closely, obviously scouting for talent that will translate into high profit business. |
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| Goonatilake agreed that Kumar's showing was "good" and could do reasonably well in Europe even though he had "not spoken to her". |
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| Others were not so enthusiastic. Nathalie Blandret of L'EClaireur, Paris, pointed out that while a collection such as this may do alright in the "mid market", Kumar's fabrics were not suitable. |
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| Kiichiro Motoyama, director, Sun Motoyama, said: "We have five Indian designers showing with us at the Tokyo fashion show including Abu Jani and Tarun Tahiliani. I feel most designs here are good for looking at, but one still has to work out their saleability. I think a lot of the designs here are for the local market. Designers have to balance it out more in terms of getting constant international buyers and not for just one-off designer pieces." |
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| The real biz, it turns out then, was happening elsewhere. Sethi says that even as his buyers were away looking at the luxury stores in the city (at the time of the morning shows), the company has already finalised certain plans. |
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| Orders worth Rs 4-5 crore have already been placed and Sethi will now be taking designers such as Tarun Tahiliani, Rohit Bal, Rajesh Pratap Singh, Ranna Gill, Rina Dhaka and Ashish Soni (even though he is not participating) to Moscow on the behalf of Tsum, part of the Mercury group that represents 80 per cent of the luxury brands in Russia. |
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| Besides which, JJ Valaya, often dismissed as a "shaadi designer", has cause for cheer "" he is part of a "special project" in Moscow. |
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