Fashion Designers in Retail Market

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Parent Category: News and Stories

Posted in: Fashion n Modelling on Monday, 24 December 2007 00:00

Published on Monday, 30 November -0001 00:00

Written by Beenum Yadav

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Designer wear in India was something about which we used to hear much and see less but now Indian designers are trying to ensure that their clothes are sold too. They are gearing up to become the part of the retail boom in the country. The Global designer wear market is worth Rs1629bn, and is growing with the rate of 9.5% per year, while Indian fashion industry is just 0.2% of it, and is growing faster then expected.

Designer wear are in vogue with the change in the attitude of consumer and heavy investment. Indian fashion industry is going to touch Rs 7.5bn by 2012, which is just Rs2.7bn at present. Study of ASSOCHAM shows that Indian apparel market in March 2007 was Rs 1,11,000 crore which will touch 1.30,000 crore by 2008.

Booming economy has not only bought the retail revolution in country but shopping has also become a favourite past time, with sprout of mall in cities, suburbs and towns, through out the nation.

Designers are gearing up to tap 81% fashion conscious population and retail boom. They have already taken a step further by tying up with retailers such as Shopper stop, Pantaloon, and West side to establish their brands and to expand their customer base.

Raymond's has developed a multi-brand outlet format with its Be: line of stores which caters to the middle-class market. Designers like Roith Bal, Raghavendra Rathore, and Manish Malhotra are already associated with Be.

Manish Arora is associated with Reebok for a long time, and his personal label Fish Fry is showcased with high-end collection of Reebok shoes. On the other hand, Anita Dongre has tied with Pantaloon retails. CEO Shoppers Stop Govind Shrikhande says, “We had launched our own shop-in-shop outlet called Buzz where we used to retail designer labels. But we scaled it down as we realised that most customers prefer the exclusive outlets of designers. However, Ritu Kumar’s brand Label is picking up, as it is more of fashion wear than a limited edition line. Meanwhile, we are also evaluating a tie-up with a designer for our private labels,”

Brands toped with glamour of designer label help to develop a distinctive line. Reebok has already entered in life style market and with this Puma is also looking forward to tie-up with Indian designers. Aditya Birla Nuvo’s branded apparel line is associated with Signature line and Rohit Bal has tied with Metro shoes. Life style fashion shows such as Lakme and Will’s provide platform to these designers for displaying their ready to wear collections.

Indian designer wear industry is lacking in manpower, system, and financial resources and therefore designers are taking smart steps by tying up with retail chains, which provide them wide distribution and customer base.

The designers have marked down their prices. Some of the designers clothing line like Raghavendra Rathore’s Kasba and Anita Dongre’s AND entry price is in the range of Rs 500-1,500.

About this Rathore says, “The label starts at Rs 550 and we saw a good response so we are now going to relook at the business strategy to expand the label to other product segments.”

Global fashion retailers are also flocking in India to valve local consumers who have developed taste and appetite for global brands. Tommy Hilfiger is in 7 cities and is expanding its presence to 15 cities by 2010 with more then 50 sales outlets. Mr. ShaileshChaturvedi, CEO of Tommy Hilfiger India said, “Currently we are in the second phase of expansion. We will be having 22 points of sale by the end of this year.”

Italian luxury brand Dolce & Gabbana has started a joint venture with DLF. They together will retail under two brands Dolce & Gabbana and D&G Dolce & Gabbana.