Business of Fashion, or BoF, an award-winning fashion editorial website, has come up with the second edition of BoF 500, a professional index that lists people who have been shaping both the creative and commercial aspects of the $1 trillion global fashion industry - from communication and design to positioning and e-commerce. Founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed talks to Avantika Bhuyan about Indians in the BoF 500 list who have made an impact on global fashion, the new wave of e-commerce and the way ahead for smaller labels. Excerpts:
How did you decide on the 20 names from India for the list?
Each year, while curating the list, we take inputs from established names in the fashion community. After receiving the nominations, we filter these through exhaustive research and analysis and arrive at the 500 who are impacting fashion around the globe. This year, from India, Rahul Mishra - winner of the 2014 International Woolmark Prize - was an important new addition. Another one was Mukesh Bansal, founder of Myntra, one of India's largest fashion e-commerce sites, who led the company through its sale to Flipkart. He fit the bill as well.
In what ways are these 20 fashion icons influencing international trends?
They are creating an impact at various levels, the most obvious of which is at the creative and design stage. The most obvious name at this level is that of Manish Arora, who has been selling his collections in Europe for the past six to seven years now. He has been at the firmament of the Paris Fashion Week. Then there are others like Rohit Bal, Sabyasachi Mukherjee and Tarun Tahiliani, who are major players in the $38-billion bridal designer market. Then from the communication point of view, actors Kangana Ranaut and Sonam Kapoor have been included in this list. They have become brand ambassadors for their ability to project fashion to the masses.
It is said there is a new wave of fashion emerging in India - designers educated in Europe and seeking to push fashion without resorting to ethnic stereotypes. Your thoughts?
We are indeed seeing an interesting development in India. Fashion designers have tried to make a splash internationally in the past eight to nine years, but most have retrenched and come back to the Indian fashion scene, with the exception of Manish Arora. But today, people like Rahul Mishra and the sister-duo of Nikita and Tina Sutradhar, who run the ready-to-wear brand Miuniku and won the special LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers 2014, are making waves internationally. Miuniku is little heard of in India, but when I met them earlier this year when they were part of the shortlist for the LVMH prize, I realised that they were a great bundle of talent. Their designs don't look "typically" Indian but are part of a young global movement of modern creativity. Indian designers don't necessarily have to be inspired only by Indian heritage but by global ideas as well.
From your research, how much is the fashion industry in India worth?
I believe that the fashion industry in India is worth $60 billion and this represents clothing and apparel right from the lower end to the top. The bridal, as I said, is worth $38 billion, of which more than half comes from jewellery.
With designer Rohit Bal creating a prêt line for online retailer Jabong and Masaba Gupta heading the creative division of Myntra's women's wear brand Anouk, is there a sense that e-commerce websites are diluting the lines between luxury and mass?
I don't see it that way. For most designers, these tie-ups with online retailing sites are just brand extensions. In India, interestingly, one can see two kind of consumers - the very affluent people are at the top end of the market for whom money is not a question. But there is also a fast-emerging middle class who is entering the 'consumer era' for the first time. It has the desire to spend but not the budget. Brands need to appeal to both but without diluting the brand. Both Rohit and Masaba are high-end names but known to the masses - they need to find a way to maintaining their luxury quotient while also being accessible.
What is the road ahead like for the smaller fashion labels?
It's troubling to see that in India, young designers think it's easy to start their own labels. Young people are attracted by the glamour but they don't realise that fashion is an extremely challenging field. When I see the roll call of fashion weeks, I see a lot of designers and brands that don't take the business of fashion seriously. Problem is that there are too many fashion weeks with too many designers. As a result the bar has fallen. Platforms are far too easily available for people with too little talent.
