Ahmedabad a new favourite destination for fashion designers

Gujarat turning out to be a new favourite destination for fashion designers in the country as the people in Ahmedabad and other cities in the state, now prefer premium designer labels for weddings and even pool parties, prompting a slew of multi-designer shops to dot the streets of Gujarat adding zest to careers of local fashion designers.

Most designers are of the view that the style of Prime Minister Narendra Modi had some impact in creating fashion awareness in Ahmedabad and other cities, along with a new cosmopolitan culture and coming of age of fashion-conscious younger generation.

Avakasa, TWT, Nautanky and Tisori are among the new entrants in Gujarat’s fashion market while established ones such as Studio Virtues, Deval Fashion, Dharshi Shah & Bhavin Trivedi, Elan, Jade Blue and Moonson are experiencing further growth momentum in their business.

Few years ago only Gujarat’s elite class used high-end designer wear, but now upper class and even middle class yearn for designer wear for their weddings and special occasions, said Deval Patel wife of Sintex Industries group MD, Rahul Patel who opened ‘Deval Fashion’ in 2004. In her initial days, people of Ahmedabad were conservative and didn’t understand the value of designer garments. But things changed drastically over the last five years with the fashion-conscious younger generation convincing their parents to use high-end brands and designer wear for special occasions.

According to designer Ashish Parikh, who set up Studio Virtues along with his fashion designer wife Viral Parikh in 2003, there has been exponential growth in Gujarat’s fashion industry in recent years. In last few years, there has been a jump of 200%to 300% in business, thus attracting new talents. Parikh, who started his fashion store from a single room of his house, in the last 10 years, his annual turnover has increased from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 3 crore.

And the demand is not limited to Indian wear. Consumers are aware of international designers and international fashion trends too, said Ranu Bathwal, who teamed up with Aditi Parekh to set up multidesigner outlet Tesori last year. Buoyed by the response so far, Tesori recently tied up with different luxury brands to offer a diverse range of products.

Dipali Shah, who opened Dipali Shah’s Haute Couture boutique in May this year, said that her clientele is very specific and knows what they want. People now want to wear designer casual brands for various occasions apart from weddings.

Looking at the growing opportunity, Suratbased textile company Nakshatra Group forayed into fashion industry in 2012 with its own ethnic wear label ‘Nakkashi’ and recently launched ‘Womaniya’ brand for casual evening wear. Sizer Lakhani, director at Nakshatra Group said that they will soon be launching another casual wear brand for tunics and kurties, as the taste, style, and spending power in Gujarat have increased 10 fold.

In Ahmedabad, there is growing trend of high tea parties, brunch and pool parties, pushing demand for designer casual wear.