Time to fashion a new feat

Time to fashion a new feat

In the last three months, there have been at least five big fashion shows at different five-star hotels in Mumbai, and another dozen five-star hotels in the city have seen smaller showings. That's good going, given the fact that holding a fashion show is anything but cheap business. Booking a hall at a five-star sets you back by Rs five lakh. Then there are the choreographer's charges, which can range from Rs 15,000 to Rs one lakh. Top ramp models will charge between Rs 15,000 to Rs 30,000 just to walk down the ramp. Add to this flowers, sound, lights, make-up, invitation cards, and food and beverage charges. If a designer were to pull out all stops, a fashion show can easily throw up a bill of Rs 20 lakh.

With all this, one would think Mumbai is becoming another Milan or Paris.Well, the truth is that while the fashion industry has become more professional, it will take more than a dozen shows to make Mumbai the fashion capital of the world.

``We have not arrived yet, but we are making inroads,'' saysdesigner Hemant Trevedi, who participated at IGEDO, the Fashion XYZ at Dusseldorf earlier this year and has choreographed shows for Shahab Durazi and Wendell Roderiks. Trevedi, who has been approached by a leading Australian chain of retail stores, believes that the time is now ripe for India. ``With the Indian look being so in at the moment, one would think Indian designers would have taken off. But outside India, Indian fashion designers are really patronised only by NRIs.''

Agreeing with him, fashion choreographer Sharmilla Khanna, who this season put together two fashion shows held at the Taj Hotel, the Baume and Mercier-Manish Malhotra show and the launch of Christian Dior watches, says: ``Indian is in abroad but not Indian designers. Who would have ever thought that Madonna would be chanting Om Shanti?''

The fashion industry will continue to grow the next year, Sharmilla believes, but for Indian fashion to go international, the government needs to get involved. ``Look at how the French are promotingtheir fashion here,'' she points out. Trevedi concurs: ``The Textile Ministry has to get more involved, and designers too have to adapt their work. We can just ape the West, but then we can also sell traditional Indian fashion abroad. We need to have our fashion in a form that is wearable to non-Indians.'' Clearly, for him, the new Indo-West or fusion wear is the way forward.

But it's not all bad news for Indian fashion, and this season did prove that Indian designers do have the potential to make it. Most designers are coming out with a range of Indo-West wear. ``You know the Indian fashion industry is very new. It is only about 15 years old, and already we are doing well. I think you could compare Mumbai with a Madrid,'' says designer and choreographer Sangeeta Chopra, who has been in the business for two decades. She says fashion shows and events have become more international in their outlook. In the seventies and eighties, fashion shows were more like cabaret shows, with models literally dancing downthe ramp and after most shows there was dinner and dancing. Today, most models just walk down the cat-walk, and most attendees actually come to the shows to see the clothes.

``In fact, the shows have become less elaborate than before. In many ways less is being spent on shows, as most shows are accompanied only by cocktails. The days of a dinner and show are over,'' Khanna says.

Devika Bhojwani, who runs Brite Ideas, an events company that put together the Omega-Rohit Bal show last year and this year handled the launch of Zegna and the Chopard show, attended the French couture fashion shows that took place in August this year. ``I attended the Givenchy and Dior shows and I have to say that shows here are now reaching international standards. The Rina Dhaka show in Delhi and the Shahab Durazi show were as good as any international show.'' Bhojwani believes that with the Indian public becoming more fashion-conscious, fashion events will increase, and she is very hopeful about the future of Indian fashiondesigners here. ``I think India will make it into the international market,'' she says confidently.

(Sujata Assomull is a senior features writer with The Indian Express)