Fashion designers turn authors

After gaining lot of experience in the industry, fashion experts are paying attention to sharing their

knowledge through books authored by them. These tomes are giving their juniors and those aspiring to make a career in fashion world a wide idea about the entire industry. After Ritu Beri, Ritu Kumar, and Wendell Rodricks, Suneet Varma is set to bring out his first coffee-table book this November marking 25 years of his journey in the industry.

Varma says India’s fashion industry 25 years ago at the time of his entry was in its budding stage. In his book Varma has traced the evolution of the fashion industry in his literary work. He says his book not only talks about him but it summarizes the experiences and thoughts of 65 other people including fellow designers, industry experts and NIIFT (National Institute Of Interior and Fashion Technology) graduates.

It maybe recalled that in 1999, Ritu Kumar too had released a book titled ‘Costumes and Textiles of Royal India’ highlighting the history of art, design and textiles in India. Ritu Beri documented her Paris experience, which shaped her career, in ‘Firefly - A Fairytale’ (2006), while J J Valaya shared his knowledge in the pictorial ‘Decoded Paradox’ (2011). Designer Wendell Rodricks says that he has been into writing since 1988 and in order to pen down his research on the history of Goan costumes, he came out with the book titled ‘Moda Goa’.

In his upcoming book ‘Green Room’, Rodricks writes about his experiences and the evolution of Indian fashion Industry in the last 25 years. Apart from this, he has also written his memoir which will be released at the Lakme Fashion Week on August 7, at Mumbai. Another veteran in the fashion industry, Pallavi Jaikishan is working on her autobiography, describing it as "a book on my work, my fashion and other work extension".

With fashion experts transforming as writers, publishers of fashion bibles seem to be a happy lot as it has proven to be a profitable business venture. Ajay Mago, publisher of OM Books International says that fashion and fashion books have a huge market in India. This is a very healthy trend. He says that one of the finest and earliest books was by Ritu Kumar and it is certainly a book that is still in demand because of its detailed approach to Indian fashion and embroidery.

However, Designer Samant Chauhan, who is also writing a book on Chanedri fabrics says that he is not considering any commercial value to the book since he is not sure if designers can earn money out of it. "All my juniors or new students will refer to my book if they want to know about the crafts of India," added Chauhan.