Prêt a porter: Market savvy designers in the forefront

With upwardly mobile urban India, leaning more towards designer clothes that spell wearability, affordability and commercial viability, haute couture is now cat walking out of the ramps into retail outlets. With an estimated Rs 1,70,900 crores

apparel market in 2010, and expected to increase further to Rs 2,88,880 crores by 2015, Indian designers and garment manufacturers are on a new high.

With higher disposable incomes and an increasing desire to stand out in a crowd, designers are playing obeisance to their customers by reaching out through varied retail routes and pricing brackets while offering clothes that spell comfort blended with innovative design ideas. The fashion fraternity labels it as the ‘prêt’ or ‘prêt a porter’ phenomenon which is the mass production of designer wear. Peter Levy, MD, IMG Fashion Worldwide organizers of leading fashion events such as the Lakme Fashion Week)and also representative of some of industry’s top organizations and federations around the globe, calls it the “democratization of fashion”. He says while earlier, the fashion critic at fashion shows was distinct and part of a limited fraternity. Today, the critic who gets invited to front seat viewing could well be a blogger who is 16-17 years old. It’s a two-way conversation now. Crowd-sourcing is helping to shape successes or failures.

The rural market is also fast catching up on trendy designer wear which is no longer limited to the bigger metros or the Tier-I cities. In a clothes survey in 2009, the rural market comprised of 45 per cent or Rs 69,000 crores while the urban market had the remaining 55 per cent or 85,000 crores sales, although it was a completely different scenario a decade ago. The internet, e-retail and designers’ websites along with social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter have increased popularity and accessibility of haute couture for both Gen Next and the more mature crowd in India. A season ago, IMG tied up with Fashion & You as its online retail partner to extend the reach of designer wear across
India and now has 40 designers – up from an earlier 15 --
oming on board after the recently concluded March LFW.

Ravi Krishnan, MD, IMG South Asia and senior VP, IMG Fashion Worldwide points out that for more Indian designers, this is the market, though they are also looking outside. Indian consumers are proud and happy to wear Indian - a unique advantage in a strong, indigenous fashion design culture. People in smaller towns are also very interested in buying designer wear. By now, Fashion & You has 1.2 million members and people across 300 towns are buying designer wear through it.

Indian designers are now beginning to understand that clever retailing is one of the best ways to sell designer wear. Most leading designers are showcasing through their own signature boutiques (Rocky S, Rohit Bal and newer names); specialized designer store chains such as Kimaya, Fuel, Ensemble, Aza, Amara, Nautanki, Elahe, Evolve and Edoluzione, Aura among many others and even branded retail entities such as Westside and Shoppers Stop that enables access to the mid to high end segment of market. While the organized market was 13 per cent as compared to 87 per cent unorganized in 2005, it is expected to mature to 25 per cent organized and 75 per cent unorganized by 2015, making the fashion industry one of the most lucrative segments in India today.