London Fashion Week’14: Overview – style and trends – Part 2

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apparels, Ashish, blog, Burberry, Clemmens Ribero, David Korma, fashion blog, fashion designers, freelance fashion designer, garments, Jonathan Saunders, Julien Macdonald, LFW, London Fashion Week, Mary Katrantzou, Mulberry, oxblood, Product design, Roksanda Ilincic, Supriya Ghurye, Tom Ford, Topshop Unique, Vivienne Westwood

In the previous post we have discussed about the innovative trends on London Fashion Week 2014. As we discussed earlier, the emergence of appealing trends like oxblood gave earthy looks and designers took it very seriously.

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Roksanda Ilincic’s show for LFW’14

The make-up done is pale and unappealing, done on purpose to highlight the hues of the dresses.

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Burberry LFW’ 14

 Also some designers took their geometry class very seriously and their collection was a walk down the memory lane with monochromatic styles integrated into both prints and shape. Amongst all, the most original application of the above trend was of Christopher Kane. Also Roksanda and Jonathan Saunders’s championed this trend in a rather bold way.

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Burberry LFW’ 14

Similarly many out of the box trends appeared on the ramp, these fresh pieces looked fabulous and they stirred sensation throughout the week.  Some designers lived folk lore fantasies by assembling a very highly dramatic look compiled with huge-oversized ponchos which created a hot and sizzling air on the ramp. Burberry changed course from its military inspired collection.  High earthy looks were common and the ponchos were made of scratchy blanket stuff.

Designer Mary Katrantzou shifted her focus this year from her famous digital prints and brought forward crochet-heavy embroidery which up classed the street fashion. The dresses, this week had an experimenting edge and to the surprise of many people were also very receptive.

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Mary Katrantzou LFW’ 14!

If you are thinking that only sober dresses dominated the ramp then you might wanna check out the high voltage collection that dripped glamour presented by who else than Tom Ford. His colors fantasized with the college jersey as well as the fenzy looking corporate day dresses.

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Tom Ford LFW”14

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Ashish LFW”14

Also Clemmens Ribeiro’s digital designs totally became the show stopper of the day. There was nothing in these power-packed fruity dresses that could be resented.

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Clemmens Ribero’s SS 14Played safe….

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Topshop Unique LFW”14

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Roksanda Ilincic LFW’14

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Julien Macdonald LFW’14

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Vivienne Westwood red label LFW’14

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Mulberry LFW”14

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David Korma LFW”14

The novel trends seen on the ramp were from different categories of fashion, some inspired by the trends of yesteryear while others renovated those things that were earlier not even considered to be of any use in fashion. Maybe that’s what it’s called invention. What do you think about the ‘innovation’ on the London Fashion Week? Also stay tuned for the next part in which I will discuss about the dresses that failed to impress the crowd.

London Fashion Week’14: Overview – style and trends – Part 1

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apparels, blog, Bora Aksu, Daks, fashion blog, fashion designers, freelance fashion designer, garments, John Rocha, LFW, London Fashion Week, Maria Grachvogel, Product design, Supriya Ghurye

The expectations were very high from the designers of London Fashion Week to create unique and epitome designs of fashion. I think it’s justifiable to say that they have lived up to the expectations and have mesmerized people. There were some marvel moments when designers like Maria Grachvogel created sparks with the lovely idea of dropping ink and letting it flow freely on the dresses. Remarkable entities were like the vintage handicrafts and prints and floral prints coming back to spot light alike the floral embroideries.  Apart from that the luxurious textures and men’s- wear-turned-upside-down-for-female has also taken its place in the ramp.  This year there was lot experimentation on the designer’s part and lots of Satin and slouch was used to walk past the ‘safe’ zone. Classic wow moments were when Christopher Kane, a Scottish designer used lead-free crystal to trim his sustainable dress for the World Global Firm.

Paul Smith LFW’14
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House of Holland LFW’14

Day one started with the collection of Paul Costelloe which reflected theme of Paris in the 70s. Vibrant and multi-colored, these dresses tweaked in fresh mustard and fuscia tartans and also in flashy floral prints.

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 Paul Costelloe’s dolls!  LFW’14

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Preen Spring LFW’14

Emilia Wickstead LFW”SS 14 Collection
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However in this pretty crowd of colors and dresses nobody made more dramatic entry than Vivienne Westwood Red Label’s Collection. It was not just the dresses that stole our eyes but also the tacky make-up.

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Vivienne Westwood Red Label SS14

The next hour dished straight into Maria Grachvogel’s collection at The Savoy. The theme looked like Grimm’s fairytale which featured her signature draping and prints mixed together to form a very dramatic effect. The dresses fit harmoniously in the right curves in the women’s body.

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Maria Grachvogel LFW’ 14- Gothelic hair bun

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Maria Grachvogel LFW’14-Celebrating Colors!

This blue flared jumpsuit was among the ones that stirred strong response from the audiences, mainly due to the sleek cut and monochromatic use of colors of the hair and cherry red lipstick.  With a sedated palette and basic embellishments, most of the collection worked on silhouette as a print and the color palate was muted.

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Title: Bold animal prints-Burberry LFW’ 14

Bora Aksu LFW’14
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Mirror work-East inspired- Bulberry LFW” 14

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Mulberry LFW’14

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Matthew Williamson-All grown-up LFW’14

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Peter Pilloto LFW”14

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Bora Aksu LFW”14

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Daks Spring Summer LFW”14

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John Rocha’s beautiful summer romance LFW’14

Spark of innovation could be seen on the ramp with beautiful mismatching layers to the point that it became a key trend of the London Fashion Week 2014.  Brands like Burberry, Temperley, and Peter Pilotto used altered versions of the prints and made this print everyone’s favorite.

Among all these intense looks there were also some LOL moments when One Directioners pushed through the crowd to get a glimpse of Harry Styles and his amazing hair.

To read more about the trends on LFW keep tuned to read the next post. In the meantime tell me the best element that you like?

Celebrity Fashion Icon ~ Lady GaGa ~

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apparels, blog, bubble dress, dress, fashion blog, fashion designers, fashion icon, fashion sense, fashionesta, frog dress, Lady Gaga, meat dress, style, trendsetter, weirdest outfit

Lady gaga is not a stranger to the fashion world. She and her experimenting ways with her dresses always drew attention. Be it frog dress or bubble dress lady gaga knows how to generate the buzz.  Her taste in fashion gets appreciated for the freshness and at the same time it’s very sassy and bold. Her raunchy, over-the-top attitude has landed her on the list of most sought after celebrity for outstanding fashion sense.

meat suit in a meat-suit
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This sexy avatar of lady gaga drew immense media coverage and people wondered how can one store beef like that? The answer is- that outfit which was made of Argentine beef was kept stored in a meat locker and later it was placed in chemicals. Then it was dried by a team of taxidermists for several months to get it ready for the lady herself. The dress was painted to make sure that the meat looked fresh. This is the amount of dedication that she puts in to make her look outstanding.

In another outfit lady gaga wore frogs all over and raised the bar of her fashion sense to the next level.

Cinderella pretty
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This beautiful dress matched with perfect shoes and the hand accessory completed the GaGa look of Lady GaGa.  Another jaw dropping dress of her was the bubble dress.  That dresses with fitted with a small bubble blowing machine and it left a trail of bubbles when she stepped out in it. The machine was fitted in a while mini dress. Her fans were mesmerized with her this quirky costume.

bubble dress
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This was also a unique dress which had bubbles all over it.  Another show stopper outfits that ‘Gagaed’ on her behalf.

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Bubble Dress Part II

These are among the hundreds of wild dresses that Lady GaGa wore that made her a real fashionista in someone’s opinion and a fancy dress contestant in else’s opinion. What do you think?

Animal Cruelty in Fashion Industry

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fashion designers

Animals have always been on the lighter side of the fashion see-saw with the designers and their needs occupying the heavier seat. The world has witnessed extreme cruelty even in recent times when hundreds of black bears are shot to use their skins to make ceremonial hats to be worn by Queen Elizabeth II’s five guards. Also in the annual Canadian seal slaughter thousands of baby harps seals are shot or bludgeoned metal looks just for fun.  These events drew criticism and negativity from animal activist alike. Since fur and animal skin was the gold mine of the fashion world so designers couldn’t replace these materials.

Animals used for delight.
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PETA has increased bans and thus cruelty-free cloths came into being. These clothes and accessories are the new trend setters of the fashion industry and the credit of all this goes to PETA who have been working with the designers to bring out this ‘new ‘Stuff.  PETA has given an alternative to the fur trade from Chinese and Indian farms. These slaughter houses produce immeasurable amount of leather and fur products.

That’s not an accessory! That’s an animal, a living, breathing animal. Is it that hard to notice?
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Tom Bihn, one such producer of alternate non cruel laptop bags and travel bags made markets and won hearts and made markets in non leather products.  Also MooShoes is another such brand that provides alternate products to eliminate leather from the market.  But besides having these alternative many fashion designers still opt for fur and leather by turning their backs at the shocking suffering undergone by the animals.

Flux can look equally good.
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The real change will come when people will say NO to cruel cloths. Like Elisabetta Canalis, who proudly said then she would go naked then to wear fur! People with this type of attitude can do the change required. What do you think? Is fur being a replaceable option should be replace or old is gold myth applies here too? Tell me in the comment section

The Bonobos Dress Shirt Assortment for Spring/Summer 2014

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Bonobos, dress shirt, fashion blog, Spring Summer 2014, tailored slim

I had an opportunity to take an exclusive preview of Bonobos’ Dress Shirt Assortment for SS’14 that goes live today. Bonobos is a men’s apparel brand focused on providing better-fitting clothes and a better shopping experience.

The range comprises largely of check prints and stripes meant for office wear, with a couple of surprises thrown in. The blue micro-floral print definitely stands out among the rest of the geometrical landscape, and makes an interesting deviation from the overall trend adopted. Bonobos aims to provide a better fit of clothes, with styles that are classical and evergreen. Different hues of blue tend to dominate, with a few others like pink and grey thrown in to liven up the mix. While the colors stay within the boundaries of standard office wear, the key differentiation lies in the fit.

Bonobos’ focus on fit has led them to develop three fits that they feel cover the majority of male body forms. The shirts fall into three categories – standard, slim fit and tailored slim. While the standard and slim fits have been around in the majority of menswear brands, Bonobos focuses on the tailored slim look for a form fit that is close to a custom tailored shirt. This provides a degree of taper that can address those with mid-sized waists and provide to some extent the slimmed-down effect that has become popular in men’s fashion of late.

While the focus on form is likely to be popular with a significant portion of the male population, a little more attention to color trends would make the range more appealing. You can check out their range at the online store here.

The upcoming fashion destination – North America

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apparels, blog, business, fabric, fashion, fashion blog, freelance fashion designer, garments, Milan, new fashion destination, New York, north America, Paris, pattern, tech pack, upcoming fashion, victoria's secret

Fashion had always seen its morning in Paris and evening in Milan. Between these two fashion centrals “The New fashion Destinations – North America has emerged. North America might sounds new today among Paris, Milan and New York but it has not been a newbie always. North America was introduced to fashion when English settlers came to settle in there. At the same time the ‘new people’ adopted many Native American dresses and since then innovations continued with the dressing sense. And with the changing times, nineteenth century saw revolutions in apparel designs. With the change in attitude, the designers started digging inside the native traditions of America, Africa, and India etc to blaze the ramp.

Beautiful dresses by the natives of North America
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The native patterns of the North American are now very wisely used by the fashion designers all over the world. Vibrancy and colors are always welcomed on the ramp and so were these new designs.

Beautiful dress designed with the native patterns and prints.
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Innovation bloomed and people started experimenting with the patterns. In this process while some got criticized others were widely appreciated due to the smell of freshness in these designs. Through renovations we have come across many new designers who have created a mark due to the change in the typical type set designs

Mixing both ends of fashion
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Earlier designers were digging with creativity to search for new designs but now native North America is the new Mecca. From controversy to style, there is nothing that is stopping the designers to bring in more native trends to their palette.

Victoria’s secret model
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Little creativity can do wonders!
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 What do you think about this dough of North and South America?

Indian fashion Industry: Part 3

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apparels, blog, colors, creative, fabric, fashion, fashion blog, fashion illustrations, fashion world, freelance fashion designer, handloom fabric, Indian designers, Indian fashion, Indian Fashion Industry, pattern, prints, surface embroideries, tech pack, traditional prints, trends

In the previous posts, Part 1 & Part 2,  we talked about the development of Indian fashion world, in this last and final post of the series we will let you all know how the fashion industry of India evolved internationally. The ethnic appeal of the Indian traditional prints are alluring customers from all over the globe. To include the wider audiences designers are putting in a lot of effort.

Grace at its best!
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The use of style and embroidery is very smart in the above charming attire.  To join two globally separated audiences, designers have to look for inspiration. The traditional prints are added to create pleasing effects on variety of dresses.

Old prints used modernly
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The traditional work of laces and zari can do wonders. The different types of embroideries in India also change the face of any sober costume.  India practically is a warehouse of patterns and design which give immense opportunity to its designers to experiment.

Beautiful embroiders to revolutionize fashion
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With the increasing trend of use of brighter colors in designs, Indian designers are trying to be more functional and bring in more folk and native embroideries together. The fabrics have also diversified giving more way to the Indian hand loom industry to grow. Handmade fabrics like wool and silk have a very charming appeal on the dresses. The unique thing about Indian fashion industry is that we don’t have to limit our self to use light shades of colors.  The traditional prints in India are usually bright-colored as they prefer to create a bold statement, boldly. For that reason designers have their palate full of colors.

Beautiful zarodozi work on the border
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Indian fashion industry has come a long way from being a demand manufacturing unit. New designers are setting the ramp on fire with their dazzling works. The audiences also love to experiment with the creative collections.  From my previous blogs, Part 1 &  Part 2, one can say that the Indian fashion world  have changed totally upside down but at its core it remains the same as earlier, being bold boldly.

Do you admire any famous Indian personalities for their sense of fashion? Let me know in the comments section.

Indian fashion industry – Part 2

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apparels, block print, colors, fabric, fashion, fashion blog, fashion history, fashion illustrations, Indian fashion, Indian Fashion Industry, Lakme fashion week, Manish Malhotra, natural fabrics, paisley print, Ritu Berry, Ritu Kumar, Sabyasachi Mukherji, Tie dye, weavers

Indian fashion industry owes a lot to the ethnic culture of the country. Hope you must have read about it in the previous blog of this series – Part 1. In the year 2000 Lakme and IMG joined hands to provide a platform to the designers to show their talent to the world. Designers are adding creativity to Silhouette – ethnic and traditional garments to give their customers fresh quality.

Suneet Verma collection 2005
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Collection by Sabyasachi Mukherji. Image courtesy : http://www.sabyasachi.com/

Fashion soon became a coveted trade and big fashion houses like Ritu Kumar, Ritu Beri and Manish Malhotra came into being. Fashion industry started celebrating colors, fabrics and formal ethnic accessories and soon Indian fashion gained western interest. Indian fashion industry is also known for its experiments with different types of natural fabrics. These different types of natural fabrics and prints which took over became the hot center of ‘fresh’ variety of fashion. Designers then started digging inside the country for more and more traditional prints and because of which hand looms also started getting importance. Also these designs provided a diversity to its customers.

Manish Malhotra 2012 show
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Masaba at LFW 2011. Image courtesy: http://www.houseofmasaba.in/‎

Traditional prints are used big time to add more elements to the fashion industry. Folk prints like the Mandana painting of Rajasthan added variety to the fashion.

Paisley Prints
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Mandana Prints of Rajasthan
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Pattern is being carved out of teak to which vegetable dyes are applied during the block printing process.
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The rich use of colors and prints fearlessly has differentiated Indian fashion from the rest of the world. Designers have boldly shed the so-called ‘image’ factor they had in the 90’s which restricted them from experimenting.

What do you think is the best element of this industry? Is it the variety that we have or the way we club our modern instincts with the older times or is it something else? Do tell me in the comments section. Also stay tuned for the next and final part on Indian fashion industry.

Indian fashion industry – Part 1

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apparels, fashion blog, fashion designers, fashion industry, freelance fashion designer, India, pattern, Product design, product development, Ritu Kumar, surface embroideries, tech pack

India has always been the paradise for fabrics and woven cloths. Even the primitive Indus valley civilization in the 5^th millennium knew how to spun, woven fabrics. But with the awakening of fashion sense, the industry began as an exclusives enterprise of independent designers. In this era there have been modifications to the printing techniques and designers started including traditional prints like block printing and tie dye in a very traditional ways which suited only the local audiences then.

Traditional tie and die painting
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India’s fashion industry hits it’s all time high in 2012 with designers like Suneet Verma, Tarun Tahiliani, and Ritu Kumar becoming the interest center of the world. The National Institute of Fashion Technology celebrated its silver jubilee in 2011 and celebrated a time when it has produced its first batch of designers.

Indian Ethnic Block Print Skirt. Image courtesy : http://goo.gl/gDShqV

Batic print Hippie dress in pure cotton. Image courtesy : http://goo.gl/TjXSAe

Ritu Kumar design 1990
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Designers after a while started using mixed concepts to give a retro appeal to their garments. Indian fashion world that we see today have expanded to new horizons with fashion designers using different types of embroideries in a fusion way. The way the traditional prints were incorporated with the modern designs, people became more and more interested in them than ever. While most of the traditional embroidery and prints have not been much favorite of the designers earlier, the Zardozi’s kept the mills running. Beautiful zari work on garments entered mainstream fashion industry but earlier they were considered to be rich and unaffordable. Also traditional dresses became a hit and the embroidery became the U.S.P of the industry.

Indian fashion Industry blooming
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Traditional Bead work. Image courtesy : http://goo.gl/GpGyLQ

Mirror work. Image courtesy : http://goo.gl/FGGzC3

Mirror Work. Image courtesy :http://goo.gl/xYH8N4

Apart from Zardozi, India is also among the top exporter of fashion and its concepts. Big UK fashion houses and Federated Stores have been known to shop from Indian markets. Since India offers cost-effective manufacturing as well as low-cost labor, international fashion houses love to manufacture their fashion products here. A lot of laces, zippers, buttons that are seen sewed on the ‘branded’ garments are actually sourced from India.

Traditional Zardosi work. Image courtesy : goo.gl/IvZhhe

Long Coat with Kashmiri hand embroidery. Image courtesy: goo.gl/hnYpDr

India has always been a warehouse of beautiful prints and skilled workforce. Designers in the 21^st century are utilizing these resources in a more intelligent way to suit their global audiences.

Malini Ramani at Wills India Fashion week. Image Courtesy : http://www.maliniramani.com

To know more about the inclusion of east and west stay tuned for the next post on Indian fashion Industry which is to be followed soon. If you have any questions then sound off in the comments section.

E-commerce and fashion industry.

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apparels, COD, colors, dispatch, e-commerce, fabric, fashion, fashion blog, freelance fashion designer, pre-production samples, trends

The modern era brought together two of the big industries together, fashion and e-commerce.  The merger industry thus formed have broken all prejudices of being two opposite side of the coin and become partners in the looming fashion industry. E-commerce was once known to just be an advertising material for the retails store but now it’s increasing into more of an independent fashion hub. In such a shorter period of time, e-commerce has become an important part in retailing and people were seen buying more from the internet then from the shops.

Buy from home! In a snap… Image courtesy: http://goo.gl/VM0yPj

Since the internet gives people so much empowerment over the long check-out counter queues that people feel much eased in buying from the website. Examples of Fashion and e-commerce industry clubbing can be seen in e-tailers, which has been also been a boon to the retail world since the site only has to pay for the website domain and not for the entire shopping complex and the staff required. This way they tend to have huge marginalized profits.

Merging big business. Image courtesy: http://goo.gl/mF5Z6h

This online network of Fashion and e-commerce industry is now entering into big mergers and acquisitions every day to outsource its goods. Recently, from Business of Fashion’s team Imran Amed partnered with Bill Amberg of London accessories. Also customer favorite eBay collaborated with famous fashion designer Derek Lam to get to the next level of Fashion and e-commerce industry retail.

Increasing consumer base with e-commerce. Image courtesy: http://goo.gl/6Ju1uN

So what do you think about the changed state of Fashion and e-commerce industry? Do you think that their merge is actually a boon to the world or was it better earlier when shopping used to be a family excursion?