|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The changing fashion scene today depends on what designers make for IT’s a great high for anyone to be called a trendsetter, says designer Nikasha Vaid. It immediately puts that person in a leadership position and paints a shining aura of popularity, beauty, success and smartness around him or her. No wonder then that the market for any product—be it food, luxury goods, fashion or jewellery—is driven by the psychology of setting trends, publicising them through the widespread media machinery and the entertainment industry, and then reaping the financial benefits of all these strategies.
Sneha Kapoor, a model who has made a mark in recent 2009 fashion weeks, says successful filmstars, top sportspersons or supermodels are seen as a trendsetting icons and are immediately sucked into the marketing network of designers and sellers. The exposure they give to celebrities in all the media, TV channels, magazines, newspapers and ad campaigns shows the images of such already popular achievers, wearing the products made by them. Marketers earn money and celebrities climb the popularity charts further to reach the top 10 in their professions. With the gigantic footprint of the electronic media and the newly-global press, there is a relentless rain of contests with SMSs, promos, events, top 10 lists and shows to promote the products of designers or consumer companies, and that is where the huge market and money lies. Marketing is the heart of trend-setting and psychological research is the fodder for the strategies used. Fashion marketing seems to be the key to planning the several layers of the industry. Beginning with their knowledge of textiles and textures, experts work on the colours, lines and look for the forthcoming season and publicise these in international guides way ahead of time. For instance, fashion capitals like Paris, Milan, London, Dubai and New York put together huge manuals to show what might be the look of the future. Drawings and shade spectrum cards illustrate what fabrics, colours and shapes the powerful councils forecast for the coming season—be it spring-summer or autumn-winter. These are like Bibles for the worldwide community of designers and buyers from fashion houses. In India, however, the western guidelines are followed with a huge pinch of local flavours so that indigenous designs show the fabulous embroidery and embellishment wealth of India. Thus, Indian designers create a ‘marriage’ of western and Indian looks to sell their wares to different clienteles with different strategies. Who are these clients? There are foreign markets where our designs are exported in bulk, or are custom-made for hi-fashion stores. Even then, foreign buyers are divided into NRIs and local celebrities. Increasingly, with Indian designs gaining popularity in French, British, US and Italian fashion weeks, fusion ensembles made by them are being bought by rich NRI Indians in the West. Also, selected foreign celebrities have chosen to wear the work of famous Indian designers at their public appearances such as the Oscars, thus giving a huge boost to the Indian fashion industry. As a result of this, many leading designers like Pria Kataria Puri, Ritu Beri, Ritu Kumar, Manish Malhotra and others have set up studios in western cities or the Middle East, and are selling their designs to fashion houses in the West. The key to the market is the buyer from every fashion house or department store. And to get foreign buyers to come to annual fashion weeks is the job of marketing and show-creating agencies. The psychology of fashion changes with every year. But it remains the main source of all creative and marketing strategies. The barometers for the changing fashion scene every year depend upon what the designers make for international stars and celebrities, what Indian designers add by using local ingredients and finally, on the huge efforts made to market every design to various classes of buyers.
|
|||
|
|
|||
