Another Lakme Fashion Week has concluded and the fashion world can almost catch its breath…although Fashion Week Mexico City is up now, as is Fashion Week Moscow; Pakistan Fashion Week has been postponed till next season (until after the elections) and Eco Style in Kuala Lampur is in mid-November (all are part of the IMG Fashion network).

But where does Mumbai fit into all of this (along with New York, Los Angeles, Miami, London, Milan, Paris, Madrid, Copenhagen, Durban, Dubai, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore and others)?
After seven years of Lakme Fashion Week and many more weeks of shows, there is clearly a place in this highly competitive and complex industry for select Indian designers. They deserve to be seen and given an opportunity to soar.
India’s culture, colour, techniques, craftsmanship and passion come together twice a year in Mumbai (and Delhi) to create beautiful, seductive and often, highly wearable clothes.

India for the past decade, and reaching fever pitch right now with its skyrocketing stock market and real estate boom, is the country everyone is not only talking about, but travelling to and investing in. There isn’t a business in the world that isn’t figuring out how (if they aren’t already here with stakes in the ground) to be a part of this hot market. The middle class is exploding along with the number of millionaires and billionaires. They all need clothes and if India’s designers don’t dress them – someone else will.
This season’s Spring/Summer 2008 collections, presented many beautiful looks and solidified some directional changes for LFW. Supporting emerging designers not only feels good...it is good and LFW has embraced this dimension and should be very proud of this, it is the only way this industry will grow and mature. Anuj Sharma, Nachiket Barve, Ruchi Mehta’s Salt are the ones to keep watching.

The GenNext show featured several promising and thoughtful designers, who were talented and articulate. Something more designers need to remember is how to explain, sell, communicate and charm your customer. I’ll look forward to seeing how Swati Bhimte’s next Rag Doll collection evolves.
This season’s big change reflected designers’ concerns about their world and its issues – as Narendra Kumar focused on illiteracy, Gayatri Khanna opened her show with clips from former US Vice President (and Nobel Peace Prize winner) Al Gore’s Academy Award winning An Inconvenient Truth and Agnimitra Paul took her bow with kantha artisans to highlight and preserve their handiwork.