United We Stand

Nair,who had earlier served as the Executive Director of FDCI,had resigned in June 2008 amid allegations of favouritism and misappropriation of funds. He subsequently floated a new body and announced a parallel fashion week called the Delhi Fashion Week,whose dates clashed with the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week,organised by FDCI,in October and March. Top designers like Ashish Soni,Tarun Tahiliani and Rohit Bal lent support to FFI while Anamika Khanna and Manish Arora stayed with FDCI.

Nair denies that steep logistics and shortage of funds prompted the merger of FFI and FDCI. “We’ve been in talks with FDPC for a long time. High logistics was definitely not the reason. We had around 177 buyers in the Autumn-Winter season and a good response,” says Nair.

Nair has been brought into the fold as main event manager. His event management company,Prodigy Fashion,is the chief organiser of the fashion week. Meanwhile,talks are on to create a designation for Sethi as a senior member of FDPC. Sethi was unavailable for comment. Singh says,“While Sumeet Nair’s experience will help us deliver an excellent fashion week,Sunil Sethi will play an important role as a senior member. He will lend his expertise in strengthening the buyer presence.” Kishore Biyani is the President of FDPC and designer Raghavendra Rathore the Vice-President.

Over the past four months,Singh has held several meetings with Sethi and Nair,bridging the gap between them. He also met with around 50 designers,coercing the biggies such as Bal and Tahiliani to fall in with his plan. Singh adds that several factors helped in bringing the two rivals together: “Besides the economic downturn,lack of sponsors,a small contingent of buyers and wastage of resources also led to the merger.”

He is mulling over the option of holding the fashion week in two venues to accommodate all the 90 designers expected to participate. An independent jury comprising non-designers will look into the selection of designers,slots and stall allocation. Participation costs for young designers are expected to be reduced since the FDPC wants to promote young talent. “The fashion week will be longer than a five-day affair and Wills will be the official sponsor,” says Singh. Wills was the sponsor for FDCI and had a three year contract.

Singh next plans to launch regional chapters in Mumbai,Chennai and Bangalore to give an economic thrust to the floundering industries there. He will also enter into talks with Lakme India Fashion Week,held in Mumbai,for a possible merger.