Newsletter 1   ::   Newsletter 2
 
 
The business of fashion
(SOCIAL REGISTER) – The Telegraph

In the run-up to the most eagerly anticipated fashion blitzkrieg of the year, Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI) recently hosted The Lakme India Fashion Week (LIFW) Roadshow at the Taj Bengal where for once, glitz and glamour took a backseat and the economics of the subject prevailed.

Held at Portico, the event was a presentation on the burgeoning fashion design industry in India and also shed light on the ongoing study of the business models required for generating and fuelling growth in the style sector. Powered by KPMG. Consulting, the study outlined several steps aimed at trend-forecasting, facilitating designer-corporate alliances and the expansion of the prêt market in the country as well as a proposal to set up a fashion park in Delhi, thus making it the nation’s fashion capital.

Present at the roadshow were executive director, FDCI, Vinod Kaul, associate director, KPMG, Anurag Mehra along with several of the city’s best known style gurus including Anamika Khanna, Kiran Uttam Ghosh, Mona Lamba, Sucheta Merh, Swapan and Seema Suhasaria and Sabyasachi Mukherjee. Also spotted in the crowd were several others with fingers in the fashion industry pie including Ratul and Komal Sood of Burlington and Kyra, Abhilasha Sethia of Intrigue and Namrata and Ashish Goenka of Zenon.

“The way forward as we see it, is by trend forecasting, introducing fashion awards and hosting a Graduate Fashion Week and a Couture Week,” said Vinod Kaul before giving everyone a sneak peek at what awaits them at LIFW 2003
Moving away from the usual five-star venue, this time around, the event will be held at National Centre of Performing Arts in Mumbai and will see 58 top guns slogging it out for the spotlight.

With 35 fashion shows, the biggest names in modeldom, national and international buyers, a herd of media and fashion watchers slated for the affair, the Indian fashion industry has never had it better.
 
 
 
Designs to dye for – Hyderabad Times

Times News Network
Her clothes have retailed from the best of designer stores around the country – Ffolio, Ogaan, Mélange. She’s already sold her outfits in Hyderabad at Oorja, Elahe and Origins but for Sucheta Merh, the designer from Kolkata, it’s her first solo sale in the city. And she’s happy with the response she received here at the Jubilee Hill Club.

Sucheta’s designs for her label Rangvai are totally fusion-based. And no, fusion doesn’t mean Indowesterns; it is the fusion of prints with the right balance of surface ornamentation. Like badla work with tie-dye or giving a value addition to batiks, or using chikankari work on the pleats of a saree. “I design all my fabric,” she says. “we start with gray fabric (fabric in its natural state without any color) and from there we spend time either with tie-dye or block prints or batiks.” And the end result is some lovely combinations of color and design.

Sucheta’s clothes aren’t the only things to catch your eye at the exhibition – the paper bags, with Rangvai printed on them, in which she’s packing the clothes, are also interesting. And even more so when you hear the story behind them. “ The bags are made in my printing unit,” she explains, “When the staff first join up, this is what they get paid separately for the bags. After they print bags, they go on to learn the finer points of printing textiles, becomes full-fledged printers and get job.” The Rangvai spring/summer collection is in organzas, supernet, georgettes and silk crepes. Though mostly made up of sarees, there is a nice selection of short kurtas with salwars and trousers too. The cuts are straight and simple, the pants decorated. Prices range upwards of Rs. 850. the exhibition ends today.

Nishat-fatima@indiatimes.com

 

Style check

(SOCIAL REGISTER) – Metro, The Telegraph

The glitterati were out in full strength. So were most of the hottest models in the city. The event: Renaissance of Style in Bengal – a fashion show with the creations by fashion designer Sucheta Merh of Rangvai, held at Incognito, the Taj Bengal. One of the city’s leading designers Sucheta specializes in working with mixed media using vegetable and mud dyes, combined with prints and embroidery. Through long experience, she has developed a unique style, ushering in an era of naturalization through the use of a combination of patchwork prints, embroidery and textures created with natural dyes. The emphasis of her collection is on ethnicity and urban chic – each handcrafted garment being characterized by its warmth and sensuality.

The fashion extravaganza, sponsored by the Taj Ladies Club, saw the launch of Sucheta’s two new lines, Vashno and Chand Tara. Combining the traditional and the modern, the show was divided into five distinct sequences – Vashno, Mudra, Katha, Shaam Sunhera and Chand Tara, each of which highlighted the different roles of a woman, a wife, mother daughter or working woman.

While Vashno inspired by cross-cultural ethnicity, is an indowestern label with garments that do duty from morning to night. Mudra is a vibrant range of kurtas with slim pants in silk crepes and georgettes. The Katha sequence featured the ever-popular range of tussar sarees in wax colors and natural dyes, while Shaam Sunhera focused on crepe shirts with finely detailed embroidery in kasab for evening wear to be teamed with sarees, trousers or churidars. The highlight of the evening; however came in the form of Chand Tara, the concluding sequence. Characterized by the use of sequins, the collection proved the versatility of black with various saree drapes over slim-cut petticoats. In a diversion from the usual fashion show, the sequences were interspersed with audiovisual rounds with fusion counseling – advice on innovative blending of garments by Sucheta’s fusion counselor, Vinita Jabbar. The entire range was showcased by some of the city’s leading models including Pinky, Joy, Nicola, Shonal and Dipti Gujral. For those who missed the fashion show, Sucheta’s collection is also available at Rangvai. Address: Shree Kunj, 6A, Alipore Avenue, Calcutta-27.
 
 

back