Spring/summer ’11 brands usher in the casual look

With the spring/summer around the corner, most mid-size to premium branded apparel manufacturers are focusing on their casual wear range. Inspired from international catwalks they are creating a variety of utility garments with

modern silhouettes. Bright and rich color combinations such as juicy orange, bright pink, tomato red and grass greens for women as well as new shades of purple along with summer darks, brown and beige will be the rage this summer. Premium men’s lifestyle brands such as Marks and Spencer, Celio, Cantabil, Guess, Monte Carlo and a number of women’s high fashion brands are now refreshing their collections with new trends and inspiration for the first season of the year. In kids wear too, manufacturers continue the trend of bold colors and animal prints season after season although muted earth shades and greys are slowly becoming popular.

Big brands are now refreshing their range with a wide variety of choices inspired from current catwalk trends. “We will be launching our spring/summer ’11 collection from February onwards. This includes close to 300 options and covers mostly all the segments of men’s wardrobe. We have plans to explore the opportunities in accessories and underwear segment as we see a huge potential there. This time denim fits are specially developed as per Indian physique for our market so we are looking forward towards the response,” says Rajat Luthra, CEO, Celio Future Fashion.

For Marks and Spencer the focus will be knitwear as CEO Martin Jones avers, “We are doing well in knit wear, which is a key focus area for us. We have got a number of brands that can appeal to different customers. We have recently introduced a bigger range of children’s wear, which is doing very well.” Various mid-size and large manufacturers are currently launching an accessories line-up of footwear, perfumes, bags, socks, caps and scarves for children and adults in their forthcoming collections to ensure more profits. Although cotton still remains the most favorite fabric for summer, knitwear will also be very popular as it is a breathable material that can absorb sweat easily. Most of the larger branded manufacturers are planning to launch an innovative range of knitwear for their collections.

Children clothing is now becoming sober with lighter and pastel tones being preferred while veering away from TV and cartoon characters. There is now a major demand for girls’ western wear and since premium players in this segment are expensive, many mid-size brands are also paving their way into this niche segment. Fabrics that are easy to wash and durable in nature will remain the all-time favorite as children tend to dirty their clothes easily.

“We have given new western looks. Fabrics are with shimmer and have the party wear look. For comfort we use a lot of stretched lycra in party wear,” says Haresh, Director, Kamdhenu Kreation that sells Child Club Girls western wear brand. Manufactures are ensuring that that the Indian consumer is in for a trendy spring/summer 2011 where casuals rule and bright colors and trendy prints team with the blazing sun to create a new cool.