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India’s Lakme Fashion Week is at a pivotal point in its history. The event, which celebrates its 25th anniversary next year, has been through various ups and downs after its organisers parted ways in 2005. They reunited during the pandemic, and today they say Lakme Fashion Week in partnership with Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI) is positioned to ride the wave of international attention on Indian design and craftsmanship. Can it compete for attention on the global stage?
“We don’t have aspirations of being a ‘big four’ event. Our focus is on creating international partnerships to develop the Indian fashion industry and its designers,” says Jaspreet Chandok, group VP of Reliance Brands, which manages Lakme Fashion Week. With further corporate investment, Chandok believes Indian designers are now better positioned to compete globally and turn recognition into real business growth.
The upcoming edition, which will be held over five days in New Delhi starting 9 October, will feature 80 designers, including Dhruv Kapoor, who regularly shows at Milan Fashion Week, and KGL’s Kanika Goyal, who recently showed at London Fashion Week. Rohit Bal, a designer with a 30-year legacy, will stage the grand finale.
Until recently, there has been a “failure to attract sustained international attention to India’s rich and diverse design language”, says Ramesh Menon, founder of Save the Loom, an NGO focused on textile-driven fashion, who has also spent a decade working as a consultant for FDCI.
This challenge traces back to 2005 when beauty company Lakme (run by Hindustan Unilever), IMG Fashion (whose India operations were later bought by Reliance) and the FDCI parted ways, leading to competing fashion weeks in Mumbai (Lakme Fashion Week) and Delhi (the FDCI’s Wills India Fashion Week, which later became Amazon India Fashion Week). “While we had immense talent, the split was a huge disservice at a critical time for the industry, forcing people to choose between two cities,” recalls Fern Mallis, author and former SVP of IMG Fashion.
“The whole thing started falling apart when established designers like Sabyasachi thought they would do their own shows and call us independently for buys,” says Tina Tahiliani Parikh, managing director of Ensemble, one of India’s first multi-designer luxury boutiques (established in 1987). A few other designers have stayed away from Lakme Fashion week, opting for standalone showings during the last three years.
“This happened because Lakme Fashion Week wasn’t pulling in enough new buyers after the first few years, and the rift between FDCI and Lakme/IMG only made things worse,” says Parikh.
In 2021, during the pandemic, the three parties reunited and agreed to merge the fashion weeks into a biannual event. The first Lakme Fashion Week following the reunion was held in March 2021. “The vision behind the partnership is that we stand stronger together,” says Sunil Sethi, president of the FDCI. “Today, we are ready to provide a collective focus towards the growth of the Indian fashion industry globally.”
Parikh believes Lakme Fashion Week can still regain its “magic”, when it was the week the industry came together under one roof, and attracted a solid roster of designers. With buyers from international stores like Selfridges, Galeries Lafayette and Rinascente set to attend this edition, Sethi is optimistic that the event will lead to the creation of multiple global brands out of India.
“Of the fashion events in India, this is the one that matters for ready-to-wear labels,” says designer Goyal.
What to look out for this season
The Gen Next show has been a consistent highlight, giving a platform to young emerging talent. “This has helped us discover some really exciting names,” says Ensemble’s Parikh. Rahul Mishra — the first Indian designer to officially show at Paris Haute Couture Week, who recently collaborated with Tod’s — made his debut through the Gen Next platform.
This season, there are four new debutants: Padma Saldon’s label 2112 Saldon, Saurabh Maurya’s Margn, Ananya Arora’s Ananya The Label, and Sakshi Vijay Punyani’s VJ. Each of these young designers draw from India’s rich unique textile traditions through a new age approach. Padma Saldon, for example, a NIFT graduate from Leh in Ladakh, takes from her region’s cultural heritage in handwoven sheep wool techniques combined with innovative patchwork techniques. Her work reflects a commitment to preserving Ladakh’s artisanal legacy while adapting it for contemporary audiences.
The FDCI is also hosting a denim edit with labels 1.11/Eleven Eleven, Ashish N Soni, Countrymade, Dhruv Kapoor and KGL participating. “There has been a denim resurgence in the country, so pushing this new narrative is timely, and the range of designers is very diverse. The merger of Indian crafts and denim can create a unique aesthetic for this much-loved material,” says Goyal, whose denim collection will use signature upcycling techniques.
“For me, the highlight [will be] the finale of Rohit Bal; he has always delivered iconic moments during the week,” says Menon. Bal, the original showman of Indian fashion, is returning after a health scare, which saw the designer on life support last year. Having made a recovery, this show is being recognised as his comeback, as well as a moment for the fashion community to come together to support one of India’s brightest talents.
“His return to the runway has already created immense buzz, and we expect a large part of the designer community to turn up for this show as a sign of support,” says Lakme VP Sunanda Khaitan.
At previous fashion weeks, Bal has put men in ghagra skirts, has showcased supermodels wearing flowing white kurtas in a pool of water to resemble floating lilies, and has held a finale show against the iconic backdrop of New Delhi’s Qutub Minar monument to an audience of designers, fashion editors and other leading fashion personalities.
For Chandok, this season will be a prelude to the 25th anniversary event, which will be held next year in Mumbai. “Next edition, we are looking at launching 25 designer collectibles celebrating the evolution of the fashion week in India with designers who have left a mark on the industry,” Chandok says. “The event is primed to become the central point of collaboration and discovery [of Indian fashion] for a global audience.”
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