Business of fashion as important as runway collection: Priyanka Modi

Celebrity-favourite designer duo Ankur and Priyanka Modi believe it is important for Indian fashion labels to understand and satisfy the local market before they aim at the West.

Priyanka, who is one half of the label AM:PM, says the reason for the worldwide success of their brand is the fact that they own their Indianess like a "boss".

"Over the years, all our inspirations have come from Indian crafts. It could be pottery, metal work or anything else. Every season, we keep India at the heart of our collection. We love to play with the artform. We spend a lot of time to get our colour palette in place. With the trend, we incorporate our local aesthetics.

Our target consumers have always been people of India. And no matter how much they travel abroad, at the end of the day if there are festivities, people want to be in Indian clothes. The clothes can be modernized but they are still not ready to don a ball gown on their wedding," Priyanka told PTI in an interview.

The designer says even though fashion designing is a creative process, one cannot afford to overlook the money aspect of it.

Business of fashion is as important as runway collection. To sustain in India, designers need to make clothes for the Indian customers. We can't be making clothes for the people in the West and survive here. We need to give the customers here what they want.

"Ultimately fashion is a business and to sustain we need to come up with something which the world has not seen before and in India we have too much to offer in terms of craftsmanship," she says.

The designer duo today presented their new collection, 'The Gypset', at the ongoing Lakme Fashion Week Winter/Festive 2018 and even though the range celebrates the neo-hippie, they have visibly incorporated the ethnic inspiration and traditional techniques.

"We went unique this time with a slightly gypsy touch. But it's a very modern take on the gypsy. It is for the modern Indian woman who is travelling around the world and is free-spirited."