25 years of India's fashion week

When FDCI was established as an industry body of designers in the 1990s, one of its mandates was to provide a platform for Indian design talent as well as help them with large-scale commerce. (Till then, designers hosted their own shows, with or without sponsorship.) Thus, the first fashion week, with beauty house Lakmé as the title sponsor and organiser IMG, took place in August 2000 in Delhi at the Taj Palace Hotel. Models like Nina Manuel and Waluscha De Sousa walked the narrow runways, presenting ready-to-wear creations by 30-odd designers, including the late Rohit Bal’s embroidered silhouettes and Ritu Kumar’s lehnga-cholis.

It was a time of “pure magic", recalls Nonita Kalra, who was then the editor of Elle magazine. “The first five years were madness of creativity. Rohit Bal, Tarun Tahiliani, Ritu Kumar, Anamika Khanna... all showcasing on one stage, speaking different languages; it was a fresh experience for them as well as us, the viewers."

New York’s Fern Mallis, former executive director of Council of Fashion Designers of America, a trade association, too, was “blown away by the talent". As part of IMG, she played a vital role in putting together the early editions of the Lakmé fashion week. “In the beginning, it was more Eastern and not very suitable for the Western audience, but you could see the potential," she says. “Now, it’s a different scene."

Mallis is referring to Indian designers’ clothes speaking a global language and garnering international attention. It is also reflected in the journey of the fashion weeks. In a span of 25 years, the fashion week has played a long game of musical chairs with the coming and going of sponsors, the launch of a now-defunct Mumbai-only fashion week, and the birth of the India Couture Week.

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In 2021, FDCI, Hindustan Unilever (of which Lakmé is a part) and Reliance Brands joined hands, realising the need for one fashion week that’s able to take India’s design story to the world.

Today, life-like replicas of forests and historical monuments have replaced the narrow runways of the 2000s. Curated music and themed make-up and accessories underline the international language of designer clothes.

There’s been a change in public perception as well, says Sunil Sethi, who attended the first edition as a buyer for multi-designer store Selfridges and then as a mentor to designers before becoming the FDCI chairperson. “During the initial years, I was told fashion was for the elite, for Page 3," he says. “Today, there’s corporate funding; we have corporates sponsoring us, so we (FDCI) are able to do shows in places like Vizag, Guwahati. Consumers have become aware of the power of fashion."

That’s where social media has played a role too, helping the fashion week seep into public consciousness as a cultural phenomenon.

Besides the perception shift, Sethi is happy about the growth of Gen Next, a platform for emerging talent that’s part of the fashion week and has produced the likes of Rahul Mishra and Masaba Gupta. “We are also participating in international shows," he says, referring to the recent presentations of Khadi India and Samant Chauhan at the Moscow Fashion Week.

The growth is impressive, but a bit delayed, something Mallis points out. “There should be more representation of Indian talent on a global scale. In a country like India, where there are thousands of designers, how come only a handful are recognised internationally?"

Sethi defends: “We could have reached where we are sooner, but the market had to develop. The next 10 years that’s going to be our focus."

The market has certainly evolved, given the rise in interest among consumers to shop for both homegrown as well as international labels. Brands are trying to create India-inspired fashion that appeals to the global customer. Part of that confidence has come from corporate funding, the heft names like Sabyasachi and Mishra have created internationally, and the shift in the way India is perceived—as a design hub instead of merely a manufacturing one.

Designers have become much more ambitious, says Jaspreet Chandok, group vice-president of Reliance Brands, who anchored the Wills Indian Fashion Week 15 years ago while working with ITC.

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“When the fashion weeks started initially, designers were still figuring out business, their voice. Today, the scale of (designers’) ambition has increased, so we (as organisers) have to consistently match that ambition," Chandok says.

Shows in the past five years might have had grand presentations and included hundreds of designers compared to the 30-odd in its first edition, but the overall experience hasn’t touched the quality one would expect from an industry that’s enjoying worldwide attention—presentations sometimes start as late as 2 hours, there’s lack of diversity in models, and collections are a hit or a miss.

Chandok says the past editions have been more “India centric... rather than being seen as Asia’s premiere event. We are actively working to change that and have more international presence."

The other thing that needs consideration is opportunities for more designers. “What’s needed is more participation of stakeholders beyond designers," says Tarun Tahiliani, who was part of the FDCI founding team, and is showcasing a collection at the fashion week. “Mentorship, training programmes for emerging designers, and more opportunities to present. In the West, there are fairs, off-calendar shows (presentations that happen outside the established fashion weeks)."

“We took charge to bring scale to the fashion week 25 years ago, because beauty and fashion are fluid; we’ve launched products inspired by fashion collections," says Sunanda Khaitan, vice-president of Lakmé. “Now we want to increase that scale and have more open formats, because you have to keep the fashion conversation going throughout the year if you want to make the industry stronger."

When asked about the larger aim of the fashion week, Sethi, Chandok and Khaitan gave similar answers: Create a global brand. “To create global brands that are incidentally from India rather than Indian brands with some international presence," explains Chandok.

That’s definitely on the mind of designers, but there’s perhaps a more urgent issue that needs to be addressed. “Ready-to-wear that’s sensibly priced," says Kalra. “We haven’t captured the market. The younger audience is moving away from bridalwear-esque clothes."

The first step in turning homegrown names into global brands, then, seems to be to capture the home market.

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