Rathi Vinay Jha, FDCI director-general, agrees. "Shows as well as collections need to be edited and we will ensure it," she says. "But don't forget that it is an evolving scenario where we are all learning and the designer community needs to mature." They better do it quickly, since FDCI has signed an MoU with Fashion Pakistan for advisory collaboration for its couture week to be held in September. Jha, who has been instrumental in developing the India Fashion Week through FDCI, thinks the task isn't easy for Indian designers. "I sympathise with them. In one show, they must target different markets—local, Middle-Eastern and international," she says, adding that the young Indian generation's preference for western wear is undeniable.
Designer Narendra Kumar Ahmed, whose collection Oriental Fantasy drew much applause as the finale at LFW, calls it designing for the future. "The western ideal in clothing is universally the notional one to convey liberation and modernity. That's what even the Indian consumer aspires for. Functions before and after the great Indian weddings call for cocktail dresses, not saris," he says. Hence, the sari, formerly called the most dramatic drape in the world, has been shortchanged.
As fashion becomes germane to the new India, it's time to call a spade a spade. Two fashion weeks every season, politically and geographically split, do not work. Both Jha and Anil Chopra ofIMG must heed the fact that 'The Partition' is doing Indian fashion a disservice. A joint script is needed—giving space and opportunity to emerging designers, and a selection from the old order to snuff out self-repetition. Burying the hatchet is the need of the hour.
Indian fashion will also make better sense if guest models are people with a point of view, instead of socialites or Bollywood nobodies. Americans find a $29 Shetland wool pullover trendy because Bill Gates wears it. John Galliano for Christian Dior has a special affinity with the colour red, also because it is the colour of carnage—a dominant memory of revolutionary France. Indian fashion too needs a cause for the right effect. Rajesh Pratap Singh tried it by getting Tabu—awash in the success of The Namesake—to walk the ramp, and actor Naseeruddin Shah to recite poetry.
It's a long haul. Fashion needs exclusivity, yet must be inclusive as a masstige brand. An FDCI seminar on brand management for the fashion industry, strategically titled 'Stitch in Time', had Union commerce minister Kamal Nath as chairperson sounding more enthusiastic than the designers. "In half the time you take to submit a proposal, I will clear it," he said, promising to fund fashion initiatives. Listen to him. Because fashion will not go out of fashion in India.
