THE OFFICIAL FDCI NEWSLETTER

Jan 2008
Volume 2

Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week

Spring / Summer 2008

T he 10th edition of the India Fashion Week began in style with Pragati Maidan playing
host to Asia's leading fashion trade event. The WIFW Spring Summer event was
marked by high energy and creativity with 30 ramp shows, over 100 stalls and 71
member-designers who showcased their collections.

For almost a week, Pragati Maidan was converted into a high fashion zone. With the
platform revamped and revitalized – from venue set up arrangements, exhibition area,
special VIP lounges and
salons, transportation
and valet services, the
best of F&B – no stone was left unturned to
ensure five days of great business and
absolute fashion.

On this special occasion, a “History Wall”

constructed at the venue displayed the
highlights of the previous nine editions.

WIFW also acknowledged Rohit Khosla's

contribution to Indian Fashion with two 32
feet high walls displaying pictures of Rohit
and his creations.

FDCI Promoting New Talent

Hi-5 Duo
Ten new designers selected by FDCI debuted on the ramp
during the WIFW under the Hi-5 Duo category: Abhijeet
Khanna; Ashish, Viral and Vikrant; Drashta Sarvaiya; Elisha W.;
Gauri Bajoria; Meher Mirchandani and Riddima; Prashant
Verma; Prriya and Chintans; Shubhra and Varun Sardana.
 [2]

New Faces Going Places…

Our Platform for New Talent
In keeping with the spirit of encouraging and promoting new talent, FDCI selected 10 new models to walk the
ramp under the 'New Faces Going Places' category.

The Designer Mode Talent Hunt

FDCI initiated a new endeavour – the 'Designer Mode Talent
Hunt' – to create opportunities for new talent, give them
exposure and further build their talent. Two young designers –
Varun Sardana and Prashant Verma – and a model from India,
Lisa Hayden, were selected for a photo-shoot in Turkey. The
photographs will be published in the Designer Mode
magazine. Turkish Airlines provided air tickets and Tui in India
and Medsa in Turkey made ground arrangements to support
this venture.

FDCI Maintains its Focus on the Environment

WIFW was marked by some environment-friendly initiatives:

• Conserve India – a non-profit organisation that recycles polythene bags into high fashion accessories
like belts and bags – was provided a stall at WIFW.
• Awareness about the environment and global warming was created by Siddartha Tytler through his
collection 'Fusion Earth 3000 AD'.
• Anita Dongre displayed her eco-friendly creative brilliance on the ramp via her line of organic cotton
and vegetable dyes called 'Grassroots'.
• Shalini Gupta's label What's Pink designed a series of shopping bags using recycled post-consumer
waste and automobile tyres. She also used eco-friendly ink for printing.
• FDCI also printed reusable bags made out of unprocessed cotton.

Promoting Indian Handloom

FDCI in collaboration with the Ministry of Textiles organized a
seminar on branding and protecting the Indian Handloom
Craft. The seminar addressed issues like public-private
partnership to upgrade the status of handloom products in
India and take it to a global platform. The seminar was
attended by representatives from the Ministry of Textile,
designers, students from NIFT and media persons. The key
speakers were Mr. BK Sinha, Development Commissioner
(Handlooms), Ministry of Textiles, Government of India Mr.
William Bissell, Managing Director, Fab India, Mr. Sunil Sethi,
CEO, Alliance Merchandising Company, Ms. Ritu Kumar,
President, FDCI, Mrs. Rathi Vinay Jha, Director General FDCI.
The seminar was moderated by Harmeet Bajaj Consulting
Fashion Director, Marie Claire.
 [3]

Designers from Eight Nations

ThreadsofUnity: Connect during SAARC Fashion Show

FDCI was commissioned by The Ministry of External Affairs and the

Indian Council for Cultural Relations to organize the SAARC
(South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) fashion show
in Delhi.

Designers from eight nations showcased their creations for the

first time at the SAARC Fashion Show titled 'Threads in Unity'
which traveled through the textile heritage of Nepal, Bhutan, threads of unity
India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Maldives.
The collection captured the rich cultural heritage, textile traditions
and indigenous handicrafts and embroideries, distinct to each of the SAARC nations and true embodiment of
South Asian fashion.

The designers who participated at the event included: Zolaykha Sherzad and Mina Sherzoy from Afghanistan,
Ather and Sabeen from Pakistan, Rina Latif and Nasrine Karim from Bangladesh, Dharshi Keertisena from Sri
Lanka, Afiya Abdul Azeez, Abhilash and Shimla from Maldives, Shakun Sherchand from Nepal, Kesang and
Dorothy from Bhutan, Ritu Kumar and Anamika Khanna from India.

The SAARC Fashion Show was part of the SAARC Cultural Festival. In addition to the fashion show, other
cultural events like SAARC Food Festival, SAARC Bands Festival, SAARC Folklore Festival, exhibition on the
'Textiles Traditions of South Asia' also were a part of this Festival.
 [4]

Ritu Kumar receives the Indira Gandhi Priyadarshini Award

T he Indira Gandhi Priyadarshini Award 2007 was presented to Ritu

Kumar on 19 November 2007 for her noteworthy contribution to
the Indian Fashion Industry. It is for the first time that this award
has been conferred on a representative from the fashion industry.

Over 50 persons were honoured for their outstanding achievements in

various fields. The awards were presented during a conference on
'India of Indira's dream' organised on the 90th birth anniversary of
former Prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi.

Mother Teresa, Birju Maharaj, and Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia are
some of the other recipients of this award in the past.

Indian students wins

WOW Award in New Zealand!

T he Montana World of Wearable Art™

(WOW) is a challenging opportunity to
showcase a fusion of fashion with
practicality and out-of-the-box creativity.

N P Jayaraj from Pearl Academy bagged the

Montana World of Wearable Art (WOW) Factor
Award of $5000 for the most innovative
garment at a design competition in New
Zealand. His collection, 'The Weaver Finch
Colony', was a creative synthesis between art
and fashion.

FDCI presented Rs.30,000 to each of the three

best Indian entries sent to WOW. Besides N P
Jayaraj, the other two top entries who won the
prize money were R S Rajasekran from NID for
his collection the 'Metal Petal', and Jasmina &
Satbir from NIFT, New Delhi & DCAC for their
collection 'I Explode'.
 [5]

First ever Designer Boutique in North East India

Designer Aparna and Norden Wangdi opened the first ever
designer store 'Ollatin' in Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim.
Nordon Wangdi is a designer from Sikkim and creates clothes
that are a mixture of tradition and modernity. The store also
sells merchandise designed by Gunjan and Rahul (Sirali),
Sunita Shanker, Sonam Dubal, Ashish Pandey, Samant
Chauhan, accessory designer Liza & Safique from Bombay
and Bharat Mehra. This unexplored market in the North East
has proved to be a good market for the designers.

India on the International Fashion Map

As colours and craftsmanship blends with western trends, India sends some of its best designers to
International fashion destinations.

Paris Fashion Week, 29 September – 8 October 2007: Manish Arora and Anamika Khanna were
the first Indian designers who showcased their collection under their own label at the Paris Fashion Week.
Milan Fashion Week, 23 September – 1 October 2007: Varun Bahl participated at the Milan
Fashion Week or Moda Milano. His collection comprised of dresses and skirts and trousers inspired by Indian
salwars in white, beige, dirty blues and pinks.
New York Fashion Week, 5-12 September 2007: Ashish Soni showcased his collection at the New
York Fashion Week for the third time. This time it was a sporty collection paired with silver jewellery.
London Fashion Week, 15-20 September 2007: Rohit Bal, Anamika Khanna, Ashish Soni, Raj and
Neetu Shroff, Samant Chauhan and Abhijeet Khanna participated at the London fashion Week.
Durban Fashion Week, 27-30 June 2007: The “Eastern Mosaic Style Showcase” at the MTN Durban
Fashion Week invited Tarun Tahiliani and Vikram Phadnis to present their individual interpretations of
contemporary eastern style .
Incredible India @ 60, 23-26 September 2007: Bryant Park saw Ritu Kumar, Raghavendra Rathore
and Wendell Rodricks represent India during Incredible India @60 festival. Ritu Kumar and Raghavendra
Rathore collections were a fusion of Indian and western styles.

Where else did India score!

Manish Arora's collections were showcased at a fashion show titled 'Fashion in Motion' at Victoria and
Albert Museum, during the India Now festival in London
Rohit Bal, Rajesh Pratap Singh, Anamika Khanna and Ashish Soni participated at the Tranoi
Fashion Salon.
Charu Parashar was invited by Pratham (U.K. Chapter) to showcase her collection at a charity show in
London which would reach out to underprivileged children in India.
 [6]

India in Paris
India and France have several things in common - a rich
cultural heritage and a fashion and style history spread over
centuries. In the fashion calendar, the early twentieth
century was very important to both the nations. Coco
Chanel, Christian Dior and Yves Saint Laurent revived the
glory of French Fashion, that was eclipsed by the World War.
This was the same time when, Khadi was brought back into
homes of millions of Indians.

Sixty years later India and France are forging ties in the area
of fashion design. It was a moment of pride when Manish
Arora and Anamika Khanna, the first Indian designers showcased their collections under their own label at
Paris Fashion Week. Indian Ambassador Ranjan Mathai, Rathi Vinay Jha, Sumeet Nair, Ritu Kumar, Rajesh
Pratap Singh, Abhishek Dutta, Namrata Joshipura and Ashish Soni, were present amongst other to support the
designers at the Paris Fashion week. The week long event epitomized creativity and talent.

While India is globally renowned for embroidery and handcraft skills, but as an industry, we need to excel in the
area of manufacturing and we require good back-up and production facilities.

As India moves ahead bridging border, there is a need for constant capacity building to develop a
professional fashion industry across geographical borders.

Weekly Designers Meet

To reach out to designers on a one-to-one basis, FDCI is organizing focused designer sessions. An initiative
of Sumeet Nair, Executive Director FDCI, these sessions address the core issues, requirements and concerns
of members. At each session, three to four designers discuss issues such as:
• What is the immediate need of Indian designers?
• How can FDCI help them achieve their goals?
• What are the core areas where designers need FDCI's support?
Over the past month, meetings with a number of designers have already taken place. These interactions
have helped identify micro and macro level requirements across varied fields like factory compliance, labour
issues, retail set-up, funding, liaisons, assistance on drawing up agreements etc.

The interactions will not be restricted to Delhi designers alone, as Sumeet Nair will be travelling across India to
meet all FDCI designers.

For Your Information!

• The new Board of Governors at FDCI include Anjana Bhargava, Ashish Soni, Bobby Grover, David
Abraham, Jattin Kochhar, Karuna Khaitan, Manish Arora, Manoviraj Khosla, Monisha Jaising, Niki
Mahajan, Pali Sachdev, Paras Bairoliya, Payal Jain, Rina Dhaka, Rocky S and Varun Bahl.
• Ashish Soni is the newly elected President of the FDCI.
• Over 7 million page hits received by Yahoo! India for the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week Website.
• Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week, Autumn Winter scheduled between 12-16 March 2008 at Pragati
Maidan, New Delhi.
 [7]

From the DG’s Desk

The tenth edition of the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week hosted in September 2007 at the trade center of
the India Trade Promotion Organization was a milestone event.

FDCI's achievement in bringing to India its very first Fashion Week in year 2000 and graduating to a
successful biannual international format with the hosting of the Spring Summer showcase in 2006 has been
a reiteration of our commitment as an apex industry Council to take the Business of Fashion forward.

Year 2007 saw many other firsts - in India's debut at the Paris Fashion Week, a coming together of South
Asian designers at the SAARC show and the recognition of the Council's efforts by our stakeholders, well-
wishers, the media and government.

This is not just a moment of reckoning but more importantly a moment of thanksgiving to each and every
one of you that have contributed to support our mandate and our programmes.

The Council works on the solid foundation of the core competence of our designers. It is this USP that we
need to take forward to markets. And it is this competence that needs to be fine honed to meet the
demands on the industry at home and abroad.

We are setting forth into the New Year with a new Board of Governors. I am sure they will bring in fresh
ideas and initiate fresh programmes – more milestones into the future of Fashion in India.

Wishing you all a very happy 2008.

SUMEET NAIR as Executive Director

Sumeet Nair has been appointed as the Executive Director of the Fashion Design
Council of India. Mr. Nair is not new to the fashion industry and has been an active
founding member of the FDCI. He played a critical role in the formation of the Council in
1998 and was appointed Director of FDCI. Subsequently, he was appointed to the

T 91 124 4062881/2/3 F 91 124 4062885 W www.fdci.org

position of Executive Director, one that he held for over 2 years. It was at that time that
Sumeet worked closely with leading members in the fraternity to draw up the blueprint
for the Indian Fashion Week that was launched two years later in 2000. He has also
served on the Board of Governors of the Council.

JMD Regent Plaza, 4th Floor, DLF Phase 1,

Speaking about his new role as Executive Director of FDCI, Sumeet Nair said “I am delighted to be on
MG Road, Gurgaon, Haryana 122001
board as Executive Director to support FDCI's vision, mission and goals for the fashion industry in the years
Fashion Design Council of India

to come. To achieve these goals, my work will focus on aspects such as strengthening and building
platforms for the industry along the supply and retail chain, corporate governance in our members'
businesses, helping designers establish best practices in their organizations, helping improve and
introduce new technology systems, intellectual property rights issues, among several other aspects.”

On India Fashion Week, he said “Over the next few editions, you will see more changes at Wills Lifestyle
India Fashion Week (WIFW); we are re-working several aspects of the platform, revamping some of those
facets, whilst taking into account the current and future requirements of our fashion industry. There's still
so much to achieve and I'm really looking forward to being part of FDCI's core team! I am very excited
about my new role and working closely with Mrs. Jha and the Council to enhance our service and support
to our members.”