Designers on a high, clinched good business at LFW (Review)

MUMBAI - From building relationships with customers to getting good business for the designers - the just-concluded Lakme Fashion Week that focused on festive wear this season turned out to be a fruitful platform for the participating designers as well as buyers.

“It has been a good season. We have got more orders from national buyers, definitely because it’s an Indian event and the population here is way higher than that of anywhere else. International buyers approached us as well,” ace designer Nachiket Barve told IANS of the Sep 17-21 event.

When asked about the number of orders he received, Nachiket said: “Actually, how many orders are there, I would come to know after the fashion week. Of course, we have started finalising orders, but I don’t have the figures or statistics as of now.”

Barve had presented a line that was purely western with Moroccan and Turkish patterns mainly created for the globe trotting woman of today.

Designer Abhishek Dutta too received a very good response for his collection Indigo Revolt, which was made with natural dyes.

“I have got a huge response. Previously people use to think fashion weeks give no business, it’s only about publicity, but I did a very good business this time. Since it’s a winter festival, that is also the reason I joined in. Starting from the domestic buyers to the Middle East buyers, they give good attention to this season so the buying is more,” said Dutta.

“Indian buying is more because of the festive season. Most of the designers tried showcasing something Indian. I have got lot of orders and the surprising part is that they all want the delivery in the next month so it’s a really fast recovery of your cash in a way because you are doing business immediately,” he added.

Dutta received orders for 20-30 pieces each from Aza, Surya Sacks, an Ahmedabad store called Nautanki and many more.

Since this season was meant to showcase the winter-festive collections, designers used the platform to bring out their creativity in that realm. They also feel that the event is beneficial not only for business but to make long lasting relationships with buyers.

“A lot of new customers were added this season and there are a lot of new people who have seen the show so new relationships are building up. This is a great thing about this show,” informed Barve, whose show was also attended by Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan and his actress wife Jaya.

Said designer Soumitra Mondal: “This is the place where we can expose our collections and build relationships with customers.”

Mondal, who showcased an Indian line at the event, received orders from Aza, Fuel and Nautanki among others. Individual customers like Mala Goenka also picked few dresses.

Sangita Kathiwada, owner of Melange Boutique, told IANS: “There are a couple of designers we are looking up to. Most of the designers we want to buy from are the ones we have been already working with because Melange is in the business for 18 years now. Seven-eight of our favourite designers include Pero, Anita Arora and Suhani Pittisburg. I liked the collection because we wanted fusion wear and that is what we got.”

The five-day gala event showcased the collections of 74 designers including Manish Arora, Ritu Kumar, Anita Dongre, Manish Malhotra, Neeta Lulla, Satya Paul, Troy Costa and the grand finale by Malini Ramani.

Bollywood glamour dazzeled on the last two days of the event. LFW witnessed a flow of Bollywood celebrities with guests like Priyanka Chopra, Rani Mukherji, Priety Zinta, Sonakshi Sinha, Sangeeta Bijlani, Urmila Matondkar, Sameera Reddy, Sunidhi Chauhan, Esha Koppikar, Hema Malini, Akshay Kumar, Tabu, Juhi Chawla, Sridevi, Diana Hayden, Dipannita Sharma, Tisca Chopra, Vidya Malvade and Mallika Sherawat attending different shows.