PICTURE SPEAK

"There was a time Indian fashion lacked substance in terms of business. But it has changed now."

Q. But are Indian designers an inaccessible bunch of people?
A. Well, designers are a hard-working lot. The Indian designer struggles to get international in terms of cuts and the construction. Unlike our western counterparts, we have to make everything ourselves, in-house. You can survive in this industry only if you love it.

Q. Has the individual designer benefited from the switch in sponsorship from Lakme to Wills Lifestyle?
A. Before anything, we must know that we have had over six years of experience with the fashion weeks. We didn't dump Lakme. There were three other pitches before Wills Lifestyle came on board. It was purely a financial reason as to why we have Wills as a sponsor now.

Q. Does FDCI give more preference to the international buyer?
A. It's not that. It's just that as designers, we have been in partnerships with established clients. Now we just want to push in the right direction. This is also the first time that we are showing a spring-summer line, which will work well, business-wise. By the time the buyers came here they had no budgets to spend, but with this WIFW placed ahead of international weeks buyers can at least check out what they want here.

Q. So who do you cater to-the Indian or the international buyer?
A. Unfortunately, it's for the foreign buyer, except for my new TT line that I have designed for this spring-summmer line, which is designed for the modern Indian woman.

Q. Initially, there was lots of criticism that you were repeating yourself.
A. It's tough to be objective about yourself. But I think I was trying to cater to every buyers' need and was trying to balance the media on the other hand as well. But I think, it's all about editing, keeping it short, spunky.

Q. We have four fashion weeks a year but do we have enough retail outlets to stock designer wear?
A. It's not fair to compare the Lakme Fashion Week and the WIFW. The more serious of the two has already been established to be WIFW and that is evident in the migration pattern of designers deciding to showcase their work in Delhi.

We should now explore a menswear fashion week or a couture fashion week to develop new aspects of our industry.

Q. What's your creative idea this season?
A. I have gone back to draping, in muslin. You can take the simplest fabric and not embellish it and still make it divine, grand and a piece of art.

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