MIDDLE EAST OR THE WEST? FORGET IT, INDIA IS ALMOST THE BEST!

It’s been a pretty hectic day 4 at WIFW for me. Have spoken to so many designers with many different points. My initial thought was to find out how business has been for those designers who don’t typically cater to the Middle Eastern market because that’s where a majority of buyers are from this season. I say ‘typically cater to’ because a Middle Eastern buyer, it is assumed, is looking for elaborate hand embroideries, loud colours, statement making embellishments.

But here’s where we could be making a wrong assumption. You wouldn’t think that Kallol Datta’s deconstructed silhouettes and clock prints would generate interest from a Middle Eastern shopper. But Kallol himself has been pleasantly surprised by the enquiries from the region.

Paras Bairoliya from Geisha designs too has booked orders from stores in Kuwait and Dubai. Their collection this time is about understated elegance and sexy subtleness.

So clearly the Middle Eastern buyer is looking for more than what we typically assume from them.

Now the next question, where are the buyers from Europe and the US? We’ve just been talking about the Middle Easterners haven’t we?

Kevin Nigli from Abraham & Thakore explains. “The buying season for autumn-winter is January-February, at best March. April is a little late and the buyers’ budgets have already been exhausted,” says Kevin.

So is not having enough European and American buyers a big miss? Not quite as I understand from the designers I’ve been speaking with.

Paras and Kevin both elaborated on how the lingering jitters of the global recession have meant fewer buyers from Europe and the US in the past 2 years. Even if buyers from the region come here, their budgets are considerably smaller OR they are stocking their Middle Eastern stores because that’s where the money and the willingness to spend it both exist!

The other reason that one doesn’t miss the aggressive interest from the US and
Europe is because the Indian market itself has grown tremendously in the past 3-4 years. So designers who were earlier looking at bulk exports are now reassessing priorities to cater to the domestic market, sometimes at much better revenue margins.
Kevin says that “We don’t need to look at the West anymore. Actual buying in India is very strong now. The process of buying has also become more professional with appointments being taken in advance etc. Buying patterns have now completely changed.”

70% of A & T’s revenues come in from the domestic market. The figure stands at 60% for both Gaurav Gupta and Geisha Designs and 90% for Shantanu & Nikhil.
Many other designers I spoke with said that even though the larger revenue chunk still comes from international buyers, the balance is tilting towards the domestic market with every passing WIFW.

As the fashion economy itself grows in the country, the designer pie will automatically grow. So for the moment as designers shift eyes from the Middle East to the west, very soon they will be saying the Indian buyer is certainly the best!