Westside announces its 2nd year of 'Designer Development Programme'

12 Mar '09

4 min read

Westside, Tata's leading chain of retail stores, has announced its 2nd year of Designer Development Programme (DDP) to encourage Emerging Talent of the fashion industry and provide them a mass retailing platform, even this season. The legacy still continues with Westside selecting designers from Lakme Fashion Week's Emerging Category.

These designers mentored by an established designer go on to create an exclusive designer prêt for Westside. A concept pioneered by Westside; this is a significant step to bridge the gap between exclusive designer wear and the fashion conscious Indian consumers. This program provides young designers an opportunity to work with a renowned fashion retailer and access to a large consumer base.

The Designer Development Programme gave some cutting edge fashion last year, where designers Vivek Kumar and Vivek karunakaran had showcased some excellent collections in the 'Emerging Designer Category', which is available at the Westside store.

This year too, the programme persists in its endeavour to discover, support, nurture and showcase new extraordinary and exciting talent. Westside has picked 5 designers this season with a established name like Narendra Kumar & Wendell Roderick's. We also have Vivek Kumar, Vivek Karunakaran .Here; we are pleased to introduce Manish Gupta – our pick for the emerging designer with incredible potential, for this season.

Commenting on the initiative, Mrs. Simone Tata, Chairman Emeritus, Trent said, “Westside's 'Designer Development Program' whilst encouraging young talent to bring their creations closer to the consumers will also ensure that our clientele gets exclusive designer wear at unbelievable prices”

With regards to the Designer Prêt collection, we have some interesting collection lined up for this season. One of the India's leading designers, Narendra kumar, lovingly called Nari, will showcase the Corporate Women's Wear collection for this season.

In terms of Women's Wear collection, Wendell Roderick's is making a comeback with an interesting bio - organic theme for the look of his Women's Wear collection which is targeted at Middle – aged women. The collection is named 'Eco range' which has colours ranging from earthy colours, summer pastels to subtle colours like black and white, used in A-line flowing silhouettes. Silver embellishments have been used in denim pants and linen. Wendell has used only black for the evening wear. Wendell, for the first time in hid career is working on a 'Knitwear collection' with soft textured knits.

Kolkata designer, Vivek Kumar will showcase the SRC collection with fabrics used like chiffon, Viscose Jersey and cotton silk in his elegant tunics. Bright colours like Pink, Mauve, Ivy green, Powder blue are the colours he has used.A round neck couched dress, chiffon sleeves V- neck pleated top, satin neckline pin tucked dress are some of his exquisite designs this seasons.

Vivek Karunakaran will showcase exclusive formal wear Men's collection under Ascot Brand of Westside, which have hit the stores in 2008.

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