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!

WE LOVE BEING IN THE MIDDLE!

So as the official ‘observer of the business of fashion’ here at WIFW, yours truly has spent a lot of time in the exhibition area. That’s where the soul of this event lies because at the end of the day, the ramp may provide the glamour but the trade, the paisa vasooli happens in the exhibition booths.

And if I have one observation from my several jogs around the booths, it’s that a majority of buyers this season are from the Middle East.

I chatted with one of the ‘small’ buyers from Kuwait. ‘Small’ because she owns only one store. By the second day of the WIFW she has already placed a 50 piece order from a popular designer and she said, probably orders for about 300 pieces will be placed by the end of the week. Yes the number is not huge but what makes this order significant is that this buyer has picked pieces high on embellishments and has picked them at good prices… margins would be great for the designer.

But it’s not just solo store owners. I hear that at least two buyers from the Middle East shopping at WIFW own upwards of 50 stores across the region. So the designers who crack these buyers will be celebrating Christmas before its time!

Here’s the reason why a majority of international buyers are from the M.E (Middle East!) this season. Store owners in the region are stocking up for Ramadan festivities which start August first this year. I don’t need to tell you how important this season is for business in Islamic nations. If store owners want to sell well during this season, festive collections need to be in store by July and which means orders need to be placed immediately in India.

But why India?

Designer Jatin Verma has bagged 6 separate orders from the region and the volumes are massive. By July his clothes will be in stores across Riyadh, Jeddah, Bahrain, Doha and more cities in M.E. It’s easy to see why. Walk into his booth and you know the collection on the racks has been consciously designed for that market. Long capes, gowns, the traditional jalabias in bright colours and look-at-me embellishments would invite anyone from M.E inside.

Jatin says that customers from M.E like a lot of things that we Indians do. So whether it’s our vibrant colours or the embroideries, “it’s easy to adapt” to their requirements that are largely about more conservative silhouettes. But no, it’s not always about the long capes… it’s also about the super sexy evening gowns that are worn inside of the jalabias. (Jatin showed me one, and boy was it sexy or what!)

Designer Kavita Bhartia, who is known for modernising Indian craftsmanship, agrees that the sensibilities are similar. “They have a similar mind set, their lifestyles are similar, they love hand embroideries,” says Kavita.

Well it’s not difficult to see the similarities. But does that mean that if you as a designer are not about embroideries and embellishments, you’re not doing much business at WIFW this season? Well that’s what I’ll find out next. This piece was just about being happy in the Middle…. East!