Repeat Value

In an industry where new events and shows should define “movement”,it is becoming increasingly clear that high-end fashion,presented with much grandeur,takes precedence over everything else,even if it entails the same creations being shown again. Another recent instance that hints at this is the Manish Arora show at the couture week where the designer admitted that his was,in fact,a prêt line and a “retrospective”. This,in turn,gave him the licence to showcase some stunning,although old creations,from his shows at the Paris Fashion Week,going right back to his Spring-Summer 2008 line. “Most of these ensembles have never been shown in India before. Not everyone’s been to my Paris shows and this was a good time for me to showcase what I do back in Paris,” said the designer to The Indian Express during the couture show.

Valaya,on his part,has a ready explanation too; he points out that WIFW Autumn-Winter 2012 being a “ready to wear week”,he showed a prêt collection for the grand finale while Delhi Couture Week was all about couture. But he does concede that both lines had the same inspiration and several common ensembles too. “A designer works on a single line of ensembles for a particular season,for both prêt and couture which best showcase the ethos of his brand. Therefore,the ensembles would majorly remain the same with slight tweaking for different shows,” he says.

Surprisingly,the organisers aren’t complaining. Sunil Sethi of Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI),which organises WIFW and the couture week in Delhi,emphasises that Valaya’s lines at WIFW A-W ’12 and the couture week were similar,but not the same. “Manish (Arora) is the only designer at the couture week to have showcased a line comprising garments that have been seen before. His case was an exception as he hadn’t shown in India for a long time,” Sethi insists.

Then,there are others,who feel that there’s nothing wrong with some overlap as long as the designer is a big draw and the audience or the market for his or her collection is new. Vijay Singh of Fashion One International,which put together AVIBFW 2012,belongs to this category. “At our event,Valaya just took the Azrak story forward; it may not have been an entirely new collection but there were several additions. In the end,it doesn’t matter much because he was showing this line in Mumbai for the first time,and the market here is different from that in Delhi,” says Singh,adding that next year’s two-city edition of the bridal week will have some designers showing the same collection in Delhi and Mumbai. “We are absolutely okay with such repetition as it will open up more avenues,” he asserts.

Designer Narendra Kumar says that the practice of repeating outfits in a show stems from the fact that now designers sign up for many shows. “It’s physically impossible and financially not feasible to come up with an new collection for every show,especially if it’s a bridal or couture line,as it takes up a lot of time,energy and manpower,” he says. Sethi makes it a point to send out a word of caution against repeating outfits. “At FDCI events,designers can’t afford to repeat creations — this is the main hub of their

business and previously shown collections won’t make the cut with the buyers,” he says.