Thoughts of fashion industry stalwarts

30 Jan 2010

The final session of tenth edition of India Fashion Forum '10 held in Mumbai, Fashion Brands Conclave, had an interesting mix of retailers on the stage. There were ethnic, western wear, jewellery as well as footwear retailers to share their views and years of experience of the fashion industry as key takeaways from the forum.

Salil Chaturvedi, director, Provogue said, “Advertising is crucial apart from selecting the location of the store. For instance we would prefer to launch 10 stores in Mumbai because that will get us good media coverage than any other places.”

Sandeep Jain, ED, OWM, the company that owns the brand Monte Carlo shared, “We are a 'crop-to-shop' label. We buy wool, make the yarn, sell it at our stores as finished products. We add value to each and every stage of product development.”

Murali Desingh, MD, Crocs India emphasised, “Standalone stores are important for creating the brand identity before diversifying the retail presence through multi-brand outlets (MBOs) and other retail formats.”

As an international observer, Wolf Jochen Schulte-Hillen, chairman, SH Selection GmbH suggested, “As a retailer you should focus on the consumer. The location or the format of the retail presence for a brand should be according to the preference of the consumer. In this new age, the internet and the social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook are helping people to generate more business.”

As a final word in appreciation of the 10 years of IFF, Vijay Jain, CEO, Orra concluded, “We have a long association with the IMAGES Group now. An event like IFF has always helped us to look for newer opportunities and learn from one another.”

— Sayanti Banerjee, Mumbai Bureau