Tapping the NRI fashion market

In the fast-paced world of fashion, if you don't strike the iron while it is still piping hot, there is a good enough chance that your name won't figure in the top ten list of the next Fall Collection. And when the market happens to consist of the fashionably rich from the West, there are probably not many Indian designers who wouldn't like to cash in on the big Indian designer rush while it is still on.

So, while the West draws inspiration from the East by lapping up the Indian spread of ethnic attires and clothing that people like Abu Jaani-Sandeep Khosla have been offering, designers back home are flying to the West to present the `real' India.

Close on the heels of Ritu Beri and Rohit Bal, who presented their works in Paris, it is now fashion designer Monisha Bajaj who will be showcasing her works at New York. Monisha would be unveiling her eight collections of fusion work at a charity event being organised by the Association of Indians in America on July 29.

To be held at Hotel Crowne Plaza in New York, the proceeds of the evening will go towards raising scholarships for Indian students wanting to pursue higher studies abroad. Exhibiting some of the works that she will be presenting and selling at a press preview here, Monisha said her collections were based on the designs that she thinks will be line with the demand of Indian attires abroad.

And if the preview was anything to go by, then Monisha seems to have based her works entirely on the demand and supply theory. The collection -- which will have a mix of various fabrics like Khadi, jute, cotton silk, wrinkle crapes and raw silk with designs of tie and dye and traditional embroidery -- is based, to say the least, entirely on popular demand.

There seems to be nothing new to the creation that Monisha is promising her NRI clientele. Dresses that look straight out of a Hindi flick, Monisha was open enough to admit that there is not too much of creativity at work here.

``Since the clothes have been designed specifically for selling, I had to ensure that they were very wearable and as per popular demand. I have tried to cover the trends of the 60s to the 90s. While the short kurtas and straight jackets are for the trendy, those preferring the traditional look will find enough in the wedding collection,'' Monisha said soon after the preview.

Keeping the Indian `essence' in tact is important too, insists Monisha. ``For me it was very important that I could

imbibe the Indian look into the dresses. There is no point of going abroad and presenting Western outfits. There are enough people to do that there. As an Indian, it is the challenge of presenting the best of my own country that I find intriguing,'' she said.

With her first solo show in New York, Monisha may be the latest addition to the list of Indian designers showcasing their work abroad, but probably not the last.

By Lakshmi Balakrishnan

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