A model in a Suneet Varma outfit at DIFW A model displays a creation by HSY

Walid Atallah at his show in DIFW

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 m i l LI o n a i r E PA S S I O N & P O W E R

Dubai International Fashion Week

The
emperors Hemant at the end of Lecoanet & Hemant show at DIFW

of new clothes
Relinquishing the front row for a peek behind the scenes, Millionaire found itself in the thick of the business
of fashion. We interacted with top designers – Walid Atallah, JJ Valaya, Suneet Varma, Hassan Sheheryar
Yasin and Lecoanet & Hemant – to understand the empire of fashion from its emperors

text Shalini Seth

photographs Mark Brown

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 m i l LI o n a i r E PA S S I O N & P O W E R
H aving tucked in the last pleat of the sari on a
model unfamiliar with the garment, designer
Suneet Varma, hair gelled and spiked, is
getting ready for another 15 minutes of
spotlight just before his show at Dubai International Fashion
Week, the first such trade event for the city.
“In 1986, when I returned after studying design, the then
Indian Minister of Commerce said to me, ‘you have spent your
parents’ money to become a tailor’. I tried telling him that I
had a Masters in Costume History, but it did not matter. Today,
everyone understands fashion and everyone wants to be a part of
it, including the Ministry of Commerce,” Varma says.
EXPANDING INDUSTRY
Earlier in the day, Hamad Mubarak Buamim, the Director
General of Dubai’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry, has
officially endorsed the show, with some of the members of their
Textile Traders Business Group turning up for the front rows of
this event. In this region, fashion is serious business. The $167
billion luxury goods industry is ensuring a growth of 20 per cent
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Suneet Varma prepares a model backstage
per year in retail sales in Dubai alone. Department stores such
as Saks Fifth Avenue and Harvey Nichols, which stock fashion
designers from all over the world, are expanding. Gucci has 13
stores in the Middle East, including six in Dubai.
Harvey Nichols has a three-floor, 12,500-square-metre store
in the Mall of the Emirates in Dubai, its biggest store outside of
London. Its partner, the Al Tayer Group of companies, manages
a luxury business with sales of about $230 million.
At DIFW, the designers – from the Lebanon-born Dubai
resident Walid Atallah, JJ Valaya or Suneet Varma from India,
Autandil Tsruitinidze from Georgia, Hassan Sheheryar Yasin
from Pakistan, Kaneyoshi Kondo from Japan, UAE-based
Mille Rostock or Indian Troy Costa – are not seen, of course.
But backstage, they are everywhere. Valaya makes sure that the
steam irons are in working order and that all the models reach
the ramp with wraparound dark glasses as accessories.
Just before his show, Varma is the link that is not missing when
jewellers from Popley’s, their backs resolutely turned, are locked
backstage with the models, keeping an eye on the jewellery
they have agreed to loan the designer. Once he has sent the last
model on to the ramp, Varma searches frenetically for his own
bandhgala, buttoning it over a casual blue shirt, as he marches
to take a bow with his collection.
“You cannot take away glamour from fashion. You put a beautiful
woman in sexy clothes, it immediately becomes glamorous. But
glamour does not pay salaries. Gelling my hair and wearing black
clothes is not going to make sure that the business works. There
are 285 people in my company. I have to work hard at what I do.
A lot of monies are involved. There is retail, there are overheads,
production machinery, infrastructure…,” Varma says. At the
end of the last financial year, a day before DIFW, his company
reported its best year ever with a turnover of INR220 million.

OVERPOWERING GLAMOUR
The House of Valaya, with brothers JJ and TJ at its helm
as Managing Directors, has had similar results. JJ says:
“Unfortunately, the glamour aspect of fashion is so overpowering
that it tends to cloud the reality. The reality is that fashion is
just like any other business. You have to make good clothes,
they have to sell, and you have to deliver. You have to make a
brand and eventually succeed. You can do an IPO [initial public
offering] tomorrow or sell out. But it is as serious a business as
anything else.”
When a potential client hops backstage to ask if she can
perhaps get the pick of his collection, JJ tells her the line will be
A model in a Suneet Varma outfit
available only in October. TJ, meanwhile, tells us: “In couture
alone we are touching close to INR100 million in turnover.
Couture is about 10 per cent of our business.”
Atallah, of course, is in a league of his own, being the first to
have used diamond and precious stones as an integral part of his because the location was not right. “For the past 10 years, I have
designs. One of his wedding dresses is estimated at $1.2 million. had a team in place. I only design. I know my strengths. The
Apart from counting hairpins, ensuring that the models’ company is handled by a CEO, with a production and design
earrings are in place, talking about the look and the inspiration team in place.”
behind a cut and a pleat, is there a sound business strategy?
There is now, Varma says, listing his earlier mistakes. “I have
lost a lot of good opportunities. For example, I would open a BUYER IS KING
store because I loved a building. But, there would be no footfall Every successful designer has had to have lessons in commerce.
JJ, who started his career as a chartered accountant, says: “You
can’t be overly creative. If you are, you get respect only from
peers and you are [a king] only in the realms of history. You
“Glamour does not pay cannot be overly commercial. Because then you become another
Johnny-come-lately who is trying to sell clothes. It is a balance
salaries. Gelling my hair achieved over a period of time.”
Tough talk, but who lays the first stone of this foundation?
and wearing black clothes Buyers, of course. “My first commercial line when I was just out
of design school – and I was a star student in design school; I won
is not going to make sure every award and that kind of thing – was a total disaster. Nothing
that the business works” sold. Not a single outfit. That was my first reality check. After
that, of course, you hone your skills and finally figure out how
– Suneet Varma to balance these two very essential elements. An overdose >

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JJ Valaya backstage with models after his show

JJ’S RULES
Had I studied my MBA, I would have rattled out a list of dos and don’ts to you.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, we learnt all our lessons by being in the thick or
thin of it.
Rule number one: Never, never ever enter the rat race – which means compete
against yourself forever. Half the time, people just get into this whole thing of
what the other person is doing and transcend that. I don’t think that is the idea.
The idea is to create credible fashion that people can relate to. And eventually,
that will grow into a business.
Rule number two: However big or popular you may be, there is always scope for
improvement. A lot of people feel that I have arrived – that, like Bruce Almighty,
I cannot be dislodged.
Rule number three: Never, never limit your vision. If you are myopic, it will catch
up with you. I am talking from the point of view of a creative business, not
a motoring company. In a creative business, you cannot afford to draw lines
around yourself and say this is what I will do and I don’t want to do anything else.
It is important to experiment and do various things and try and make a success
of as many of them as you can.
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“The reality is that fashion is just like any other business.

You have to make good clothes, they have to sell, and you
have to deliver. You have to make a brand and eventually
succeed” – JJ Valaya

of either one could result in catastrophe,” JJ says. Business a fashion brand needs anything from eight to 15 years to really
relationships, buyers say, are handled by the ones who are experts start going to the next level. The next level is a corporate house
in business. Designers are known not only for their muses but also showing interest – and saying that ‘I see this brand as being a
for their partners. serious project to be taken on’. Visibility of your couture line
Take Didier Lecoanet and Hemant Sagar – the pair who takes you to that level. Then, either a conglomerate picks you
constitute the fashion brand Lecoanet & Hemant. They flew up, or you go the Ralph Lauren way, which is a licensing model
to Miami Fashion Week immediately after DIFW and were where you get into a brand extensions…”
crowned Designers of the Year. The pair met in 1978 and started As fashion history goes, Polo Ralph Lauren has been a
a tiny workshop on the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré. This public company, traded on the New York Stock Exchange
grew into a salon, then into a boutique, and finally into a fully since the 1990s. >
fledged fashion house.
Since 1984, Lecoanet & Hemant have presented a haute
couture and a ready-to-wear collection every season. In 1988,
Lecoanet & Hemant introduced a line of accessories in Japan; in
1991, the line acquired a new address at the Hotel d’Argenson
in the heart of Paris’s Marais district. In 1994, they won the
Golden Thimble, or De d’Or. Lecoanet is the creative one, even
in his spare time. He wields his paint and brush when he is not
designing exquisite clothing. Sagar, for his part, divides his time
between managing the business and listening to music from
around the world.
Says Lily Amir Arjomand, a general merchandise manager from
Saks Fifth Avenue: “We have a business relationship because we
have agreements with them, contracts with them. We deal with
them as business people. The designer is the creative director.
They always have finance people, the operations people who
are really masters in their work. They are very competent in
doing the business side for them. A creative person is not really
someone who would sit and do business.”

PHILOSOPHY OF GROWTH
Walid Atallah, the Dubai-based designer with an international
presence, says it is important to hire people with the right
education. His golden rule when hiring people for his vast
empire: “I am not a businessman. I am a designer. The person
who works with me must be educated, smart and must understand
me. He must be educated in marketing, if that is what he is
TJ Valaya is the business head of the House of Valaya
doing for me.” The House of Valaya, your typical family-owned
business, has its own philosophy of growth. Says TJ: “Typically,

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JJ and TJ together started the House of Valaya. Says JJ: “It
most certainly is a family-owned business, at this point of time.
As are most Italian top brands even today. But ours is a family-
owned business that is certainly looking at corporatising. We
have managed to create a 45,000-square-foot establishment in
an industrial area as our headquarters and factory. We have inked
India’s first licensing agreement and launched the luxury flower
business, which is another first. These are steps in establishing
the brand as a player in the field of luxury lifestyle. We are now
in the process of structuring the entire business – getting a
CEO and a CFO – the pivotal people required to look after the
business. We have been the first to open a fashion store outside
India, in Dubai.”
JJ says the brothers’ advantage was that they worked together
from the start. But for the emperors, with empathetic partners,
Hassan Sheheryar Yasin says it’s possible
to mix creativity with business acumen
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the real work is still design, not business. JJ, who is the creative
head, says: “The primary asset that a fashion designer should
possess is being able to visualise. You are working eight to 10
months in advance. You are assuming that this is the look you
want, that it will succeed. But it is based purely on what you
visualise. So that is very important. That is DND [do not disturb]
and no one does.”
CREATIVITY AND ACUMEN
Hassan Sheheryar Yasin, the designer who has made his empire
in Pakistan, says it is possible, even necessary, to combine
creativity and business acumen. “You are crunching numbers
while figuring out whether something will sell the next weekend.
There are, in fact, even weekly changes in the ready-to-wear
segment. If there are three large events over three weeks, people
will hit our stores over the three weeks. And it is important that
they come to the store and know that they will find new things
each time, even if it is our ready-to-wear line,” Yasin says.
TJ, the business head of the House of Valaya, says: “We already
know what we are doing next season. The mood boards are made,
everything is done. The first piece has to be sketched. And [JJ]
always shows me the first sketch. I can go through it and decide
if it will make commercial sense.
“At the same time, I get him involved in business decisions.
So, you might find a little bit of strategy and vision coming from
him and you might find little bit of creativity coming from me
– but just a tiny bit.”
Varma agrees that a blend of strategy and design is necessary
for success. “You have to learn to plan and grow with the market.
When the market grew we decided to add prêt. Then we realised
that the middle market has grown. We needed to add a third
line. Today, our diffusion line sells better than anything else.”
Reviews, critics, shows, parties, glamour – all add to the
bandwagon and make fashion newsworthy. Says Yasin: “Publicity
“If you don’t publicise it,
people are not coming
to you. You are not a
product that they need to
stay alive. You are not
a bottle of water”
– Hassan Sheheryar Yasin
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HASSAN SHEHERYAR YASIN

They say each generation is 25 per cent smarter than the previous one. Hassan Sheheryar
Yasin, arguably Pakistan’s most globally recognised fashion designer, is certainly smarter than
his predecessors. Valaya was already showing the first signs of being house-proud by the
time Yasin entered fashion school in 1996. “I started my business in 2000 with $50. Today,
my company is 350 people strong and it is the largest-selling fashion house in Pakistan. Last
year, our turnover was a little over PKR100 million,” Yasin says, visibly happy to talk business
rather than fashion.
HSY, the subcontinent’s answer to acronyms, is becoming a case study in establishing
management mantras. “Management schools are doing studies on us and our way of
working. We have a system that works. There is no precedent. We have gone to many
management companies. No one can tell us what to do. The market is volatile at best. There
is no set pattern to how a woman will spend.”
Yasin says he is blessed with business acumen; he did not have to acquire it. While Valaya
is studying brand identity and Varma is celebrating his best year ever, Yasin is busy putting
together his own version of stock options and profit-sharing schemes for his employees.
“Everyone gets a percentage. Someone with a salary of PKR15,000 can go back home with
PKR150,000 for that month. How many units of clothing they can produce at the same level
of quality will determine their share, which can be anywhere between two and 15 per cent. I
am happy that I am not the only one going home with cash in his pocket,” Yasin says.
And tomorrow, or the next year? “Mashaallah, I still enjoy what I do. By the end of the year,
we will sell in 35 stores in Pakistan, 47 stores in the world – London, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, in
other GCC countries, New York and New Delhi.
“Starting with $50 and a dream, we have done quite okay!”

is even more important than your design. You can be a fantastic
designer. But, as they say in Urdu, ‘jungle mein mor nacha kisne
dekha?’ [Who noticed when the peacock danced in the forest?]
You can spread your wings and be a beautiful bird but if no one
has seen you, what is the point?
“If you don’t publicise it, people are not coming to you. You are
not a product that they need to stay alive. You are not a bottle
of water.”
THE DESIGNER IS THE BRAND
Models notwithstanding, designers are often stars in their own
shows. According to Valaya, his role in the House of Valaya
is about design and public relations. TJ hesitates to pose for a
photo, even as JJ fields questions with years of experience. “I am
my brand. The creative director or the designer is the name, the
person whom people associate with the brand. So, PR becomes
an integral part of the role. It is expected and accepted. That is
what fashion is. We are not making the rules. These rules were
made years ago. Movies and fashion thrive in the public eye.
Separate the two and you will see that it does affect business to
a large extent,” JJ says.
To gel your hair, or to shave it; to grow a ponytail or wear a
turban – these are choices that affect the brand. Varma says: “I
am aware of myself as a brand. I am careful. I would endorse
only BMW, for instance, not just any car. I would associate >

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A model displays a JJ Valaya outfit A model displays a Walid Atallah outfit A model displays an outfit by Lecoanet & Hemant

“I am not a businessman. myself with Swarovski as opposed to, say, shoes. I would not be
associated with just any brand of alcohol; it would have to be
I am a designer. The person Moët et Chandon.”
From PR to marketing is only a step. Yasin says: “People’s
who works with me... must attention spans can be short. In two hours, 80 per cent of people
would have forgotten your ad. That means we have to see you
understand me. He must be again. We have to invite you into our world the next day, and
educated in marketing, the day after that. So you feel that ‘I am a small part of this world
because I bought that outfit’.”
if that is what he is doing In the final analysis, it always comes down to business.

for me” – Walid Atallah

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