The men can finally claim to have hit the centrestage. Fashion events have primarily been about womenswear but at the inaugural Van Heusen India Men’s Week, the spotlight was firmly on Indian designers doing menswear — for a change. The three day event kicked off at The Grand hotel in Vasant Kunj on Friday and will feature 28 designers.

“Many of us, me including, started our careers doing menswear, so it’s a homecoming of sorts,” said designer Ashish Soni, who, along with Rohit Gandhi-Rahul Khanna of the label Cue, will showcase his collection at the grand finale on Sunday.

While rain threatened to play spoilsport on Day One, Friday’s five shows, including those of Ravi Bajaj and Rohit Bal, went off without a hitch. The low turnout of buyers was perhaps the weak link. While the number of registered buyers at the event is 56, very few were present for most part of the day. While most of these are domestic buyers, a few international representatives have also come, including those from Anthropologie and Li And Fung.

The focus of the event seems more on brand building than on actual sales. “Men’s fashion in India contributes to less than five per cent of the industry,” designer Rahul Jain of the label Sirali said. “Most men are not into dressing up, and definitely not into designerwear, unless it’s ethnic wear for special occasions. So this event is more about building a platform and bringing men’s fashion into the foreground.”

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