Fashion brands gear up to offer variations

30 Jan 2010

The session of Fashion Buying became more interactive with the active participation of audience in the second day of India Fashion Forum '10 at Mumbai. Thorsten Allenstein, MD, Triumph India observed, “It is very important for a fashion buyer and a retailer to workout a matrix in which the style, price, customer identification is made evident. Since the fashion cycles have been introduced to India recently, the risks are higher now and there is a need to deliver on time. Thus, planning is important.”
From the perspective of ethnic wear manufacturers and retailers, Manoj K Bhaskar, COO, Hara shared, “For us, the fabric is very important. Also, having the knowledge of the market trend has helped us to diversify. Being present in large format stores, now we know exactly what works for us. Understanding the customer base, depending on the region has helped our products to sell."

Vijay Misra, director, W shared, “Before launching our brand in the market that would offer kurtis for women. We then realised that most of the ethnic wear brands had 300 to 400 pieces available but the styles were very similar. The depth and detailing were missing. So we decided to start off with only 60, which seemed to be our magic number but we did create different options for the fashion conscious end-consumers.”

The debate on how to sell, what to sell and where to sell was taken up by another panel, a little later in the day with the aim of zeroing upon some of the evolving fashion spaces. Anurag Mathur, MD, Cushman & Wakefield India, observed, “I feel that if a traditional India retailer such as Nalini come into the mall space, they will bring in their loyal consumers too, along with them.” Sailesh Chaturvedi, CEO and director of Tommy Hilfiger India noted, "Mall owners are trying to create an interesting brand mix and thus are encouraging various retailers to come in. Though they may not be compromising on the rentals, there is a lot more transparency as compared to the high streets I feel.” Shilpa Malik, founder and CEO, Star Centres concluded, “ It is a good idea to have kiosks within the stores. It will help to create the over all look of the store and make things more interesting for the consumers from time to time.”

— Sayanti Banerjee, Mumbai Bureau