Formal wear for women gets bigger in India

With many women entering the corporate world, the formal wear segment has got a major boost. The category has undergone a transition with time and only a few top brands having a stronghold are leading the way with innovative collections, designs and styles appealing to the today’s young women.

Working women turn to formal wear

A recent study by Technopak Advisors revealed that the total number of women employee in the organised sector has increased from 4.9 million in 2002 to 5.9 million in 2012. The trend is expected to continue in the coming years as modern Indian women are proving their prowess in the professional field. Hence, shirts, trousers and coats are fast finding their way in the contemporary Indian women’s wardrobe.

“In India, the ratio of women employees has grown in corporate sectors and IT companies. Increasingly, they are opting for formalwear as it gives them a serious image. In case of meetings with top executives or clients, they want to be taken seriously, at par with their male counterparts. Especially in metros the trend is clearly evident,” says Bhaskar Kelkar, Brand Head, Park Avenue Woman.

Segments like semi-formal, smart casual, business casual have come up under formalwear with a marginal difference with each other. A growing number of urban working women are accepting concepts like ‘board room dressing’ and ‘business dressing’. The western formalwear segment in India is a newly developed category with only a handful of players. However, the phenomenal growth in the sector has attracted some of the biggest lifestyle and fashion brands to launch a women’s line of formalwear. Leading names in the segment include: Park Avenue Woman, Van Heusen, Allen Solly and Marc Cain among many others.

Boring formals get a fashion twist

Five to six years back the idea of western formalwear was primarily confined to monochromatic colour palette or at the most sober solid colours, stripes in shirts and trousers. However, with India’s fashion scene evolving at a higher pace, the boring formalwear has undergone a sea of changes to become youthful, chic, classy dress code for today’s smart women. From boring monochromatic palette and solid colours, the western formalwear segment in India has broadened its spectrum to include dresses, pencil skirts, tops and blazers.

“When it comes to western wear, women are more keen on looking fashionable and trendy and at the same time being conscious of their environment and body type. Certain silhouettes have taken precedence over others in the past couple of seasons, indicating a complete shift in western women swear category. For example, the dress has become the new tunic. Be it a fitted sheath for a formal occasion or an evening satin toga dress or even everyday summer tunic finds acceptability in the hugely dynamic Indian market,” explains Vinay Bhopatkar, Brand Head, Van Heusen.

Though western formalwear market for women acquired a comparatively smaller share in the overall branded apparel market in the last few years, the growth rate has surpassed the growth of menswear formal segment. As per various industry studies, the category is growing at an average 15 percent as compared to 8-10 percent growth in menswear category.