The 15th Anniversary celebratory season of Lakmé Fashion Week concluded with some impressive shows, inspiring fashion trends and upsurge in business of fashion. This season saw a perfect blend of upcoming and emerging talent along with Lakmé Fashion Week veterans who returned to celebrate this special edition with elaborate off-site shows. The designer lineup was one of the strongest any Indian fashion week has seen with the likes of Sabyasachi, Manish Malhotra, Anamika Khanna, Tarun Tahiliani, Wendell Rodricks, Suneet Verma and Raghavendra Rathore all showcasing in one power packed season. To complement the celebrations were 15000 visitors along with 163 buyers, 43 international and 120 national buyers, who contributed to the business growth. Increased presence from tier II markets was also observed this season. Overall, Lakmé Fashion Week Summer Resort 2015 garnered stupendous response from media and all stakeholders involved.
This season, to celebrate the 15 year milestone, Lakmé Fashion Week revisited and highlighted its rich history of fashion through several interesting initiatives. This season saw pre-event, first of a kind multi-city fashion tour wherein each city got a sneak peek of the upcoming Lakmé Fashion Week. India’s first Instagram show by Masaba, felicitation of renowned designers for their work in Indian Textile, Sabyasachi’s high-tech multi laser opening show and the Blue Runway show by Manish Malhotra which launched WEvolve, the global campaign against gender-based violence were the other highlights that amplified buzz across the nation.
With 83 participating designers and 15 sponsors, Lakmé Fashion Week continued to broaden its stakeholder base by augmenting physical participation accompanied by a robust digital outreach program which included working with giants like Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to develop interesting content strategies, and initiatives on-ground. Keeping up with the commitment to digital, this season saw the return of recently launched Lakmé Fashion Week Apartment – exclusive address for digital influencers, use of drone camera, Instagram booth, live streaming of shows on Lakmé Fashion Week’s YouTube channel, led screen display that showcased analytics from its social media channels in real time, among other activations.
Talking Fashion
Celebrated Designer Manish Malhotra said, “”It feels home when it comes to Lakme Fashion Week. We go way back and have supported each other tremendously, especially since my label started ten years ago. This time our partnership was very special as we supported the WEvolve campaign. I would say LFW shined and the show turned out to be fabulous. The response to our show was terrific!”
Leading Designer Nikhil Thampi said, “It’s always a pleasure to be part of Lakmé Fashion Week. This season was quite an emotional one for me because as Lakmé Fashion Week turned 15 I turned 3! The Highlight would be the review which really appreciated the interpretation of my collection, which was theme oriented. Sales accelerated really well this season. Lots of buyers showed much interest. Coupled with this was an amazing response from the media. My phone was ringing off the hook after the show and even today, I’ve been giving interviews. Lakmé Fashion Week has always been a platform that has promoted young as well as talent that stands apart and keeping that in mind we will always try to bring something new each season.”
Renowned Designer Nishka Lulla said, “I would like to congratulate Lakmé Fashion Week on completing 15 years. It has been a platform which has given rise to great Indian Fashion. I am extremely happy to be part of such a big platform. I have shown in 5 seasons until now and I can say that I have matured through each collection at Lakmé Fashion Week. This season we’ve received a great response from media and buyers. With Lakmé Fashion Week having a very wide reach, I have been approached by several international buyers as well.
“Being a part of Lakmé Fashion Week and especially in its 15-year celebration has been a dream come true. As a new designer one can only hope to launch on such a brilliant platform, and GENNEXT has given me that platform to share my work and for that I will always be grateful. Seeing my garments down the runway and taking the final bow as a designer for my first collection on this platform is a memory I’ll never forget and definitely the Lakmé Absolute Grand Finale by Anamika Khanna. It’s been an overwhelming response, and extremely humbled by the fact that not just the media but also the buyers have appreciated the work that was put out this season. It being my first showcase, business has definitely grown as I have managed to reach out to buyers from all over India and internationally.” said, Gen Next designer Salita Nanda
Leading Designer Gaurang Shah who showcased on Indian Textile Day said, “Being part of Lakmé Fashion Week’s 15 year celebrations was a journey that I enjoyed; networking and showcasing to the world the grandeur of Indian Heritage Textiles and the exquisiteness of Jamdani weave. We hope that the revival of Indian Heritage Fashion art is highlighted even more and expands to a wider audience through its social media as well as other networks that Lakmé Fashion Week has been using to expand Indian Textile Craftsmanship both in India and Globally. There has been a growing interest in hand looms since the time I stepped into theLakmé Fashion Week show area. It is remarkable that people from all over call me and seek the wearable, eco-friendly handwoven collections to wear to work and on special occasions. Well for us the platform is to showcase creativity using the art of Jamdani. We feel proud when customers walk into our store and say that they have loved our collections and would like to wear them for all occasions.”
Talking Business
Varun Raheja from Minerali, Mumbai said, “The Grand Finale by Anamika Khanna, Valliyan and Nikhil Thampi’s retro music concept was simply outstanding. I happened to find a beautiful new avenue and addition to our store, “KARLEO” head accessories, and have already started stocking them. We are India’s first Multi designer only accessories store and stock Valliyan as well as Vasundhara Mantri who were part of this season. Would like to thank Lakmé Fashion Week for bringing such beautiful creativity closer to us.”
Aparna Badlani from Atosa said, “My favourites from this season of Lakmé Fashion Week Summer/Resort 2015 include Ragini Ahuja, Shift, Payal Singhal, Antar Agni, Krishna Mehta, Wendell Rodricks, Surendri, Veda Raheja, and Urvashi Joneja. I look forward to doing business with them. Moreover, we are in the process of working on our numbers for orders this season.”
Gurchuran Singh, Director of Calcutta Clothing said, “The fashion shows this time were very different, especially attending the offsite shows was a very nice experience. Since I’m into retail I look at doing business with upcoming designers. I am planning on visiting them and placing orders of anything between and up to 50 lakhs.”
Rakhi Bhutani from Aura said, “I loved the complete experience at the Lakmé Fashion Week Summer/Resort 2015. Few of the Gen Next designers were good n different. Apart from Sabyasachi and Manish Malhotra I also liked Gaurang Shah, DRVV, Jatin Verma, Shruti Sancheti, Munkee see Munkee Doo with whom we are already working with. I would love to work with Ragini Ahuja, Arpita Mehta, Anushree Reddy to name a few. I really thank the complete team of Lakmé Fashion Week for their warm hospitality and I being a part from the first fashion week, have really seen them evolve. Great job and dedication was seen at the finale where even after the venue change, in such a less time, they managed to put in a great show. All in all had a great fashionable time. Good luck for many more to come.”
The five-day long extravaganza was also well received by media, with regular all-round coverage of broad talent, show-stoppers, and sheer buzz associated with the event. The media particularly appreciated Lakmé Fashion Week’s efforts in bringing global fashion to India and for encouraging young and talented designers to exhibit their creativity at this prestigious platform.
