Business Confirmations

Japanese buyer Tomoko Inuzuka placed order with her favourite designer Manish Arora. She also admired the collections of Kavita Bhartia and Namrata Joshipura. David Schneider from Portugal and Dever has confirmed orders with their regular designers like Ranna Gill, Rina Dhaka and Rohit Gandhi- Rahul Khanna. This time Schneider has also added two new names in the list-Rajesh Pratap Singh and Manish Arora.

Designer Duo Hemant and Nandita seemingly had good sale this season, while designer duo Ashish Viral and Vikrant disclosed that the buyers' response was 'not very encouraging' this time. "The buyers seemed to be taking no chances as they preferred to go for the established designers'. For the first time, even my regular buyers are negotiating hard on price." Vikrant said.

With a constant change in the Indian fashion bazaar, the story of fashion weeks is getting interesting with each passing day. The concept of multi fashion weeks with major cities being the venue seems to be favouring the designers, whether they are new or established. The apparel business, slowly but steadily, shall be seeing more of confirmations from buyers and more of participation by the designers, in seasons to come. It is the time now to watch the shelves of the international stores like Harrods, Selfridges and, Fifth Avenue where, the Indian designers, more or less, are getting a successful placement!

Originally published in The Stitch Times: April 2009