To say this is the worst of times for the Indian fashion designer would be an outrageous fallacy. To say this is the best of times also might not always ring truly true. I'm sure there will be raised eyebrows aplenty even over this assertion. But, let's look at simple figures. The prêt industry has the potential of generating business worth Rs 2,500 crore annually. The present day figures will not touch even a Rs 100 crore mark if it is just designer prêt we talk about, and this inclusive of both the domestic market and exports.
The fashion designer has indeed reaped the first flush of success. Couture sold and how it did. So we have Ritu Kumar, Rohit Khosla, Suneet Varma, Tarun Tahiliani, Hemant Trevedi, Rohit Bal, Sandeep Khosla, Abu Jani, etc, etc. They were the woman and men who pioneered the fashion movement in India. Couture still sells, but how much? Every year a new enterprising batch of students emerges from the various fashion schools. Is the couture-buying class growing at that identical rate? While not many can dethrone the czarinas and czars of fashion, the tribe of aspirers to the throne are one too many. The competition is heating up. According to a recent study, we will have 400 million people below the age of 35 in the next 15 years. As the nation gets younger, so will the fashion-conscious average Indian.
Figuratively speaking
Here are some more figures. The super rich segment of the country comprises 0.4 million households, the upper class embraces three million. While the super rich account for 14 per cent of the total spending on clothing, it is the latter segment of upper class families which account for more than 17 per cent of the total spending on clothing and about 28 per cent on branded clothing. This consumer may still very well be buying unbranded as also exclusive tailormade clothing, but this is the segment that is ravenously eyeing the top brands and designerwear. The mushrooming of malls is just a case in point. I wouldn't be very surprised if I read or hear that premium clothing, which can be hired on loan, can be bought on EMIs too. In the famed local trains of Kolkata and Mumbai, in fact, weavers from villages and popular working commuters-turned-traders from suburbia have been selling sarees and salwar-kameez pieces in tant, cotton, polyester, etc, on a small downpayment of Rs 100-150 and then coughing up the balance Rs 200 or so over the next one or two months – this has been on for more than a decade now. The trend just needs to percolate up (if at all it can) to the EMI tribe.
The smell of money
The fashion designer obviously smells loads of money in the nouveau riche and upper class segments. More and more are willing to move out of their ivory towers to create for a strata higher than the hoi polloi. "The first Indian fashion consumer was the elite. This year it is more than evident that our customer base has amplified. We don't know who they are. They come to the malls, and know our brands. In the midst of these unknown faces there is also the nouveau riche who buy our brands and associate a lot of importance to them. The designer gear is a unique thing for them. So we need to coalesce this psyche of the consumer with what they want," says dare-bare functional clothing queen Rina Dhaka.
But as it wears down on designers, there is no fixed strategy on how to go about it. "I just grew with the trade. We were the first few. Today, our struggle has been to streamline the retail system. Earlier, the designer was not his or her own distributor, but now that they are getting into retail it's a very tough path. The retail system is utterly disorganised. It's been ten years since we started, and part two of our functioning is retail and distribution. I have to be an efficient retailer along with being a designer. Retailing in itself is not my area of expertise, but every experience is a learning stage. The current phase is the confusion stage," adds Dhaka.
Prêtfalls
Prêt is a relatively new phenomenon which is just about finding its feet in the Indian market, contends JJ Valaya. He has had Ernst and Young work on a business plan for a lucrative prêt line. Till he gets a suitable partner for this new venture, Valaya is content to do a diffusion line which is essentially a watered down, hipper version of his couture line. "It is a bridge between couture and prêt, and to some extent is assisting us in testing the waters before we dive into the prêt segment."
Ritu Beri has just announced the launch of her prêt line which has been developed on the basis of having about 95 per cent of the retail network on franchise and balance five per cent owned by Ritu Beri Designs. The investment, therefore, will be directly proportionate to the number of shops that open. As of date, the investment, excluding that of the franchisees, has been around Rs 11 crore.
Jattinn Kochhar, who recently teamed up with Khadi Village Industries Commission (KVIC) to design a kurta line, says prêt "is my strength. The market is not too happy at this juncture, but I know I am going to be very, very happy soon enough." And indeed, he might be even if it means that his stylised kurtas, priced at Rs 900 are actually going at Rs 600 because of the ongoing 30 per cent discount. "It took me two-three months just to get to the top boss (of KVIC). But I told myself to be patient. There is a huge potential here. From where else can I get such a good distribution system?" he asks.
Rohit Bal's step into the prêt market found synergy with BE and currently with his wide range of merchandise he claims to have reached out to different segments of society through different retail formats own, MBOs, departmental and lifestyle stores. He admits that the prêt line is exciting and Joseph Sam, the chief executive officer and president of Rohit Bal Designs & Balance by RB, is very sanguine. "We intend to get into the driving gear and become market leaders in the prêt race. A separate manufacturing, value addition and retail strategy has been put in place for Balance and the response has been one of ebullience."
But, the first few steps have not been smooth. "While various fora from the Lakme India Fashion Weeks to seminars on this had thrown out ambiguous definitions or definite numbers with ambiguous justifications, it was left to the imagination of most aspiring prêt designers to position merchandise the way they wanted. So we produced a collection across a wide range of price points with value addition being the focus based on the category and price range," says Sam.
Many lessons were learnt along the way – costing, diluting designs so that costs are lower, and the ability to increase the scale of manufacturing to reach out to larger audiences without compromising on the quality expectations. The other tortuous paths that straightened out related to merchandise planning (categories, price points, size, colour offering), sales monitoring, branding and positioning, retail practices, necessity for quantitative customer feedback, and a quick response strategy for manufacturing.
Bal seems to have emerged from the cocoon-chrysalis stage that Valaya is undergoing.
"After having gone through the two years of learning, we now work with different teams for prêt and couture. Besides, based on the merchandise calendar, themes or trends are forecast and collections are brought out in two forms – seasonal and flash, where a special edition or a signature collection is brought out in between regular collections."
Nonetheless, he does not discount the roadblocks towards entering the retail market. Sam goes on, "Designers are not commercially the best of business propositions but their creative offerings can give any ready-to-wear brand a run for their money if they have the right financial backing."
Kochchar echoes Bal's impressions. Lack of government patronage, an organised industry status, commercial terms which erode the ability to aggressively invest, high excise, local sales tax, service tax, retailers' cut of 40 per cent are just some of the hurdles in entering the retail market. In spite of it all prêt "has been my strength". Like Bal and many other of his tribe he calls for a professional approach. He also has some simple grouse. "At times I feel like packing my bags and migrating to some other country. Outside people look at us as creative persons. Here you may be a designer, but are still considered a darzi – not that I have a problem with that. Over the last couple of years I have grown out of the statement mindset. I have not bothered to do shows. Big stores like Westside, Lifestyle also do not have the right mindset. They put up lines that were part of a fashion show. I told them that the merchandise is not meant for their clientele. But they insisted. Tell me how many will buy a jump suit with sequinns? Retailers also need to put their brains together. They think it's a privilege they are meting out to us."
Brothers Shantanu and Nikhil, who recently diversified into western womenswear prêt, argue that the move is an indication of "our label's commitment to both adapt and reach out to the global markets." They realise real fashion or prêt coexists with real people. "In all reality, a corporate engineering is required at both the design and the business philosophy of the label so as to fully understand the seriousness of what the mass market is all about. This, adequately backed up with a corporatised fashion set-up, will only make the Indian fashion industry grow faster."
Beri sums it up best. "Prêt around the world works on three basic principles brand equity, stylised clothing, and value for money. If these three criteria are met, then there aren't too many other issues to iron out. Most important is to realise that the value for money criteria can only be met if production is carried out in large volumes. This, therefore, means a large retail network to start with. Indian prêt is today plagued with high consumer prices due to fact that the volumes simply do not exist due to very small retailing networks."
