Fashion

Certain events serve as weathercocks—they tell you which way the wind is blowing, or, at times, beginning to blow. Textile machinery fairs are something like that. Since textile machineries call for huge investments that need to be planned years ahead—and given that no company would want to pump in monies unless they were sure those would not blow away in the wind—the interest generated in these events can vouchsafe be taken as indicators of the shape that industry may take. The ITM Istanbul is...

The Rana Plaza disaster of 2013 has been cited so often when talking about the state of Bangladesh’s garment industry, that it has almost become a cliché. It has also, for the same reason, remained a blot on the industry—one that refused to go away. But four years since the global textiles-apparel-fashion industry was shook to its very core, things are probably beginning to look up, and the bloody stains of 2013 that resulted in the official death toll of 1,134 is slowly starting to fade into...

Not always do big-ticket events or headline-grabbing incidents dominate the developments over a calendar year; more so in the textiles and apparel industry where the throwing of a stone into a pond creates ripples years later. On the other hand, quite often in fact, there are silent developments that tend to have a bigger long-term impact on the fashion scheme of things. The year gone by was one such phase, with many key developments of 2017 not causing a stir. # 1) Digitalise, or be done with...

Sometime in the early 1990s, a well-known designer in Delhi spotted a person at an upmarket shopping complex wearing a stunning outfit in cream and red. But when he took a closer look he was in for a shock, for the woman was wearing one of his own designs. Worse still, the design had not yet left his studio. The designer, obviously, queried her and discovered that she had purchased it from an upscale boutique. This creation was in a different shade, but the material was ordinary. The designer...

On current challenges This (violations of intellectual property rights) is one of the biggest problems because piracy or even copying of designs on a mass production scale hurts the business a lot. It is a stealing of ideas, which leaves one with a very bad taste. It is a threat to the brand name, and at the same time it also becomes a threat from buyers who might have bought a handcrafted, beautifully-created piece. But a similar kind of piece might be available with a brand in a printed...

On current challenges Every industry needs three key components that give it the impetus of evolving into a significant and organised contributor to the economy, namely (i) education / R&D / skill training, (ii) association, (iii) government regulation / empowerment. The Indian fashion industry (albeit the status is more of a sub-sector of textiles) is relatively young from an organised perspective considering that its pioneering educational institutions and associations are less than three...

How concerned are you about copyright over your creations and the problem of piracy? Shilpa Agarwalla: We are very much concerned about the issue of copyright and IPR at large. While as a business, we own overall trademark as well copyright for our creations, I am appalled at the blatant imitations by many players in the fashion industry. I would not like to quote any specific instance, but if you look up the web for our designs as well as those of any leading designers, you will find copycats...

Professor Dilys Williams is Director of Centre for Sustainable Fashion, (CSF) a University of the Arts (UAL) Research Centre based at the London College of Fashion. Williams’ work draws on her extensive experience as a lead womenswear designer with international collections including Katharine Hamnett and Liberty alongside an internationally recognised teaching and research portfolio. Trained at Manchester Metropolitan University and holding a UAL professorship, Williams publishes widely on...

How do you see the Indian textiles and apparel industry as a whole shaping up over the next few years? Do you think things look good? Neelesh Hundekari: Things look good, but they could be better. If you look at the upstream part of the value chain, which is yarn and fabric, India has a solid competitive advantage, maybe more in yarn and less in fabric. In garmenting, we have lost the plot. In terms of retail, it is an attractive market, one that will evolve on its own. I think there are quite a...

The Fabric of Change initiative of Ashoka and the C&A Foundation is set for a scale-up with the two organisations launching a new €250,000 Scaling Impact Fund as part of their joint venture supporting social innovation in the apparel industry. The announcement came in the run-up to the Fabric of Change Globalizer Summit organised in Bengaluru on Friday. "The awards will focus on the newly crafted strategies and the way forward rather than past achievements. This is an exploratory process that...