|
The Indian fashion industry has huge potential but international
buyers feel designers are unable to capture a bigger pie in the
global market as they lack marketing skills. "Indian designers are
not famous abroad and global customers mainly want to buy branded
stuff," Kichiro Motoyama, president of Japanese fashion store Sun
Motoyama Co. Ltd, told IANS.
But Motoyama said he was planning to buy silhouettes for up to
$60,000, which would include nearly 500 outfits of Tarun Tahiliani,
Rohit Gandhi and Rahul Khanna.
"Designers are very localised in their approach. They must do the
promotion and marketing more aggressively to compete with other
internationally renowned names. It is very difficult to convince
customers to buy Indian designer clothes as the labels are not
famous," said Mohammed Salah of designer store Moda In of Kuwait.
The Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week (WIFW) has completed two
days, but not many buyers can be spotted. Though 63 international
buyers have registered, only a couple of them have turned up till
now.
Designers like Tarun Tahiliani have received orders for over 400
silhouettes, Rina Dhaka over 100, Anjana Bhargava and Varun Bahl
about 50. Puja Arya, Rajesh Pratap Singh and Vikram Phadnis are
expecting good business in the coming days.
Buyers felt that there was a lack of individuality and perfection
in the collection of Indian designers to attract global customers,
especially when the on-going New York Fashion Week and upcoming
Paris Fashion Week run parallel to the WIFW.
"Don't forget that competition is tough and Indian designers have
to give buyers an extremely strong reason to come here rather than
going for other shows," remarked Armand Hadida, founder of French
fashion store L'Eclaireur.
"There are two major problem with designers here. Firstly they are
not perfect, I mean some are good with fabric and techniques while
others are good with design and cuts. They also lack the personal
touch in their collections.
"Secondly they are not sure about their target audience. They must
decide whether they want to sell in the Indian market or Middle
East or Europe and work accordingly," he said.
Buyers also said that there wasn't enough international media
coverage for the fashion extravaganza.
"Every year we bring some fashion journalists along with us on our
own expense, so that the Indian fashion week can be written about
and customers become aware about the labels. Unfortunately this
year we couldn't work out the same so there will be no coverage of
the fashion week in our country," said Motoyama, a regular buyer at
the WIFW.
Indo-Asian News Service
|
