INDIA: Fashion Gurus Global Designs Cut Short

Designers like Rajesh Pratap Singh, Anamika Khanna and Sabyasachi Mukherjee have walked the global ramp with aplomb in recent years, as invitations to the leading fashion weeks have increased manifold and buyers from leading fashion houses have warmed up to India. But orders are now dropping by almost 25% as there has been a substantial shrinkage in the budgets of major international buying houses.

After years of wooing international buyers to make their mark on the global fashion scene, leading Indian designers are being forced to re-strategise with sales dipping in international markets due to weakening consumer sentiment.

“Several buyers communicated a reduction in budgets this year, which has affected their buying decisions. To tackle the slowdown in western markets, we focused on buyers from West Asia this season, who accounted for 30-35% of total orders,” Vikram Raizada, vice-president and head of fashion at IMG, a co-sponsor of the Lakme Indian Fashion Week, said.

While some designers said that they would now like to refocus on India where they are already established bands, others are looking at rejigging international sales through value offerings.

“When budgets shrink, international buyers tend to prefer homegrown designers. Indian labels are already more difficult to market internationally, so it becomes a defeating proposition to focus on international markets now,” Sabyasachi Mukherjee said. He is now planning to stave off competition from international casualwear brands in India by diversifying from ethnicwear to ‘ethnopret’.

“There is already a ready market in India in terms of acceptance of the brand, which can be further expanded,” he added.

Multi-brand designerwear outlets-Ensemble, Melange, Aza-are growing at a fast pace. The country’s largest designerwear chain Kimaya, which retails 132 labels, plans to launch three more specialty formats to tap smaller cities and multiply retail presence from around four to 48 stores.

Though he has bucked the trend with an increase in international orders, Rajesh Pratap Singh said that he would be banking on such multi-brand outlets to consolidate presence in India. Several high fashion international brands such as Stella McCartney, Jean Paul Gaultier and Moschino have also seen promise in Indian markets in the past few years.

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