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Friday, September 24, 2010

India Fashion Weak

Another Lakme India Fashion Week came and went by. Here's what I think it ultimately boils down to...

All the world's a ramp,
And all the men metrosexual and women size 6...

To the lay viewer - or 'consumer' as she is popularly known - that's what Lakme India Fashion Week (LIFW) looks like...

Designer Narendra Kumar's collection is inspired by the MMS scandal. Shantanu and Nikhil are inspired by the Sikh religion. Wendell Rodricks is inspired by the untouched people of the world's islands. No one, but no one, is inspired by the idea of clothing the modern - not model - Indian woman.

If genius is 1 per cent inspiration and 99 per cent perspiration, so is wearable fashion. The fashion fraternity is excellent at the first, hopeless at the second. It is the local tailors and boutiquewaalis who put in the sweat. These folks follow Fashion Week keenly, adapt an element here and an idea there to make clothing that women, with good money to spend, will buy.

But this doesn't matter to the designer darzi. No sir, we design for the international market. Didn't you know LIFW now attracts foreign buyers - the kind with authentic white skin?

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