Images BOF

Bollywood Boulevard. Filmistan. Cine Walk. Name it what you will. But, just imagine A nation almost hysterical about its film stars. A nation that hums the same ditties whenever a film is set to hit the box-office. A nation where Bollywood could well be synonymous with a ramp that entertains you with a song-music-dance and a story where fashion seduces in a riot of wispy chiffons, luxurious silks, casual skirts or natty shirts and trousers Fardeen ‘Provogue’ Khan gave the shirt brand an...

Fashion sells. Does it? The exercise leading up to the first ever IMAGES Retail Awards (IRA) gave us enough pointers that the business of beauty and fashion is blooming. Fashion it was that fashioned the retail trail as it leapfrogged to various other segments such as entertainment, consumer electronics, leisure, catering services. The pioneers in the organised field were Zodiac, Raymonds, Bata, Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri or the very up-market stores in plush five-star hotels like Gazdar in...

Has fashion apparel become unfashionable? Is being fashionable a part of the comman Indian’s psyche? Why are there no fashion seasons in India? Why are fashion retailers a harried lot? Why has the average spending curve on apparel seen a downward trend? How good are our shop floor personnel? Are we doing enough to get the best out of them and ourselves as retailers? Remember Images Fashion Forum ’04 (IFF ’04) where industry articulated the need to work together as “one”... where industry voiced...

Luxury… interesting word… roll it around your tongue and you feel the rich luxurious texture… luxury is luxury… there can be no other word for it, there could not have been any other word for it. And who better than India, nay Indians, to know it. We Indians know how well it rests cheek by jowl with the vaunted snake charmers, beggars, huts, shanties and slums that serve as home, sweet home. A chink through the slats of a hut; wink and gaze out of that chink caused where the weather-beaten slat...

It's been a month since my first footfall in the apparel and textile sector as a serious industry watcher. My eyes more keen than ever as I now as much as glance at any shop or store or mall, terms like VM, CRM, POP, POS, brands, power brands, retailing … trip all over my mind in the true spirit of business as I critically appraise each product I touch, feel, and observe. After one such visit to a mall, following earnest discussions with a non-industry journalist friend I was slightly surprised...

From couture, to diffusion, to prêt. The designs of fashion in India, since the inception of the India Fashion Week just five years back, has seen the high-brow fashion designer stoop to meet the masses at their price points. From sheer drama on the catwalk to a drama created to draw buyers and not just mere applause to the rounds of cocktails and Pg 3 titter, the success of the annual Weeks can now be measured in terms of this gradual movement. Incidentally for this edition, ‘Join the fashion...

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...