India gets a joint fashion week after 15 years, as FDCI and LFW team up to meet challenges of COVID-19 era

Across the world, some of fashion’s biggest designers sat out the A/W 2021 fashion season — notably Gucci, Balenciaga, Ralph Lauren, Michael Kors, Alexander McQueen, and Saint Laurent. In recent years, the direct B2C capacity of social media has been gradually undermining the primacy of fashion weeks in attracting buyers. The pandemic expedited the process with fashion weeks being forced to adopt a digital-first approach. Back home, when the Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI) and Lakmé  Fashion Week (LFW) – the organisers of past fashion weeks in Delhi and Mumbai respectively – announced on 1 March that they would be coming together for a joint fashion week in 2021, the collective reaction amongst the fashion crowd was “high time!”. It’s high time the Indian fashion industry put together a singular consolidated front. McKinsey reports that, in 2020, we vaulted five years forward in consumer and business adoption of digital in a matter of months. For fashion weeks to retain their position as fashion’s great spectacles, their producers must get a grip on the digital trends shaping the fashion landscape. Both FDCI and Lakmé fashion weeks innovated traditional runway formats last year with their ‘phygital’ editions. Through a collective fashion week, the two can combine their digital resources and enable designers to expand their consumer outreach. With shows starting to stream today and continuing until 21 March, the excitement surrounding the event is greater than it has been in years. Stronger Together Since FDCI and Lakmé Fashion Week split in 2005, Indian designers have been divided between the two platforms — their decision led in parts by loyalty and sponsorships. Along the way, some fashion designers, notably Sabyasachi Mukherjee, stopped participating altogether or moved their shows to fashion weeks abroad. “It can be agreed upon that the pandemic was one of the major contributing factors that propelled this reunion,” says Sunil Sethi, chairperson, FDCI. “We’ve always had a very positive relationship with LFW, and they also supported the COVID-19 Support Fund (CSF) that was initiated by FDCI at the onset of the pandemic.” Similar to previous ‘phygital’ iterations, the five-day week will showcase fashion films, panel discussions, digital showcases, and seamless runway-to-rack shopping experiences. “We see a more evolved event emerging, that adapts itself to a sharper on ground presentation and strategises concurrently on amplification to a larger universe through digital innovation,” adds Sethi. Jaspreet Chandok, Head – Lifestyle Businesses, RISE Worldwide (formerly IMG Reliance), agrees: “We are opening new vistas; the shows will be streamed on the social media handles of both LFW and FDCI and the idea of a joint fashion week was to pool in our resources together. The added attention our partnership brings will only shine greater focus on the participating designers.” Although Chandok believes that digital weeks cannot beat the on-ground experience, he agrees that certain digital changes will permanently influence how the industry connects with buyers and how audiences consume content. “This season will put forward the best of curation from both partners. The biggest improvisation itself is the partnership with the FDCI and we hope that will help bring more eyeballs to the presenting designers,” he adds. [caption id=“attachment_9423671” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] (L-R) Stills from digital shows by Gaurang, Amit Aggarwal, and Pero by Aneeth Arora at LFW 2020[/caption] The Old Guard Although some prominent designers are noticeably absent, the digital line-up features established brands such as Manish Malhotra, Gauri & Nainika, Suneet Verma, Payal Pratap, and Shantanu & Nikhil. In a ‘seasonless’ edition, designers can present any collection of their choice, through fashion films and digital shows shot between Delhi and Mumbai. Anamika Khanna, the Kolkata-based design veteran, will be opening the shows with her collection ‘Timeless the World’. “My collection is a collaboration of art and textiles that pays homage to the fact that what is created will one day perish,” says Khanna. It features garments with fringes made of gold threads that are “dressier than the track pants and t-shirts that have become a norm”. According to the designer, she was inspired to create timeless pieces that respond to the general desire to “dress up, step out and feel opulent”. Commenting on the collaboration, Khanna adds, “It really is an honour to be able to be in the opening show for the FDCI X Lakmé Fashion Week this season… Across the world, when you think of a country, there is only one fashion week that comes to mind. When it came to India, a designer still had to choose between Mumbai and Delhi. With this collaboration, I’m glad that it is now one fashion week that represents India as a whole. While digitization has expedited the process of the fashion powerhouses coming together, I hope it will stand through for coming seasons as well.” The Next-Gen Over the years, both fashion weeks have been instrumental in spotlighting and supporting young designers. This year, a new initiative ‘FDCI Emerging Talent’ will introduce the brand Bloni, designed by Akshat Bansal. Bloni’s collection, ‘In between X and Y’ blends tech-generated fabrics made from marine plastic waste with local artisanal techniques such as tie and dye, hand crochet, and knitting. “I think of myself as a conceptually driven designer who responds to cultural shifts. All my collections are completely different from one another,” says Bansal. His upcoming collection talks about blurring categories and the inexplicability behind doing so. The belief that clothes should not be categorised along the lines of gender or season underlies Bansal’s design process. “I want to create a hybrid culture of clothing and fashion where we resist the tagging of anything to a gender or a science. All our silhouettes are fluid and open-ended. Bloni does not attach itself to a particular segment of clothing,” he says. Another designer to look forward to is Priyanka Ella Lorena Lama of P.E.L.L.A, whose collection ‘The Hive’ beat five others to win ‘NEXA presents The Spotlight’, a new initiative this season. Lama was inspired by the idea of life in slow motion and combines indigenous handwoven textiles such as silks, Pashminas, and stinging nettle weaves (a Himalayan textile tradition).