City designers who skipped the Mumbai-based fashion week for the one in Delhi, say it’s because of the difference in formats.
The recently concluded fashion week in the city had its share of controversies. Noted: the absence of many top notch designers and that a few were threatening to participate in a rival fashion week in protest of the step motherly treatment meted out to them.
Well, the rival Delhi-based fashion is all set to roll out on April 6 and the list boasts of most industry big-wigs — namely Sabyasachi Mukerji, Manish Malhotra, Varun Bahl, Tarun Tahiliani, Rajesh Pratap Singh, Ritu Kumar, Shantanu and Nikhil, Rohit Gandhi and Rahul Khanna, James Ferrera, Abraham and Thakore, Anamika Khanna and Anupama Dayal — showing their Autumn/Winter collections. The list also features a couple of Mumbai based designers who skipped the fashion week on home turf.
Ask one such designer Gayatri Khanna, as to why she chose to show the fashion week in the capital over amchi Mumbai and she says that she’ll show wherever trade is active. “For me, it’s all about the trade and less about Bollywood. I think the Delhi based fashion week offers more serious business opportunities — there are more international buyers present there. Also, there is no emphasis on Bollywood there, it’s all about the clothes.”
Another grouse that Gayatri — who used to show in Mumbai previously — voices is that the current season format of the city based fashion week does not work for her. “In Mumbai we are showing for the present season. That really leaves me with little or no time to complete orders. In Delhi, I have around six months to deliver. That’s a more realistic deadline,” she points out.
Rahul Mishra, who made his debut on the Mumbai runway too will be showing at the Capital this time around. “I honestly believe that both the fashion weeks are important for the country — the country is filled with talent,” says Rahul but not before voicing his only grouse — the current season format in the Mumbai-based week. “I work with different weaves all the time. The current season format gives me barely a week to a month to deliver which is impossible for me to do. What I show in Delhi now, I will have to deliver in six months,” says Mishra.
Young designer Masaba Gupta who is showing at both the weeks this season however strikes a balance when she says that both the format work well for her. “It’s always good to have more time to deliver the goods. But I’m okay with the format in Mumbai also because let’s face it — we primarily cater to domestic buyers and they want to stock up right now! And if I had to draw comparisons, I’d say that Delhi could probably improve on their organisational skills,” she concludes.
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