To take Indian fashion on to global level, a very informative and thought provoking workshop was held on March 29 2007 during Lakme Fashion Week, where designers and International experts shared their views with a packed hall of retailers, designers, media and students.
Setting the pace for the discussion Simon Lock, MD IMG Asia Pacific, welcomed the speakers on the panel. As the moderator, Simon Lock stated that IMG and Lakme were the pillars of the fashion industry and were making every effort to take the business of fashion onto a global level.
The panel comprised Fern Mallis, VP, IMG fashion, Albert Morris from Browns, designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee and Colin McDowell, Senior Fashion Writer, Sunday Times UK, who then shared their experiences and thoughts on how the GenNext can prepare on becoming global brands.
Opening the discussion Sabyasachi Mukherjee admitted that he had taken a break and not shown at the current Lakme Fashion week because he wanted to consolidate his production since he was catering to two separate markets – USA and India - which were diverse in their fashion needs. He was happy with the students’ attendance at the seminar and stated that they were the future of the fashion business but they must remember that in fashion one must leave the ego behind and take it as a serious career.
Fern Mallis advised that designers should be reachable and communicative with their buyers and customers but she felt that taking a break was not advisable in a Blackberry world where speed is the essence of business.
Albert Morris agreed with her, adding that buyers invest in space and money and come to see new styles at the fashion week so it was necessary for designers to be regular in their participation.
Colin McDowell who has been an actor, designer and now fashion writer has experienced fashion from both sides of the spectrum and admitted that one was as good as one’s last collection and designing was a tough job which required new ideas every 6 months if one was to succeed.
The workshop was thrown open to the audience who then had some invigorating one-on-one with the panelists Anil Chopra, VP, Lakme Lever closed the very interactive workshop by stating that Lakme Fashion Week is built on the two pillars – Integrating India into the global fashion world and define the future of fashion.
