A Toast To The Best Formal and Semi-Formal Styles We Spotted At Lakme India Fashion Week

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Amit agarwal, brand consultancy, design studio, fabrics, fashion brands, fashion designers, fashion labels, fashion show, fashion startup, Fashion Week, formal wear, formal wear and evening wear, freelance fashion designer, garments, Kunal Rawal, Lakme India Fashion Week, runway fashion, Saaksha and Kinni, sheer fabrics, silhouettes, styles, styles and trends

If you’re a fashion aficionado, an aspiring designer or a follower of celebrities, your timeline was probably flooded with images from Lakme India Fashion Week that concluded just a few days ago.  We know because we’ve been digging some of these styles, too.

Here at Fuel4Fashion, we’re huge believers in practicality. Some of the most stunning styles on-ramp often fade away from existence entirely. Some others look great on models but probably not so much on real people in real situations, minus the flashbulbs. That said, three designers absolutely stood out for us and showcased designs that can be adapted into wardrobes.

Take notes, fashion entrepreneurs- your customers will be asking for these styles very, very soon.

1. Saaksha and Kinni

Perhaps the clearest example of a designer’s clarity of thought comes through in this designer duo’s collection for Lakme India Fashion Week this time around. Prints are a very urbane expression of the self- in fact, think back to your ancestry, and you’d be sure to remember one print or one weave that everyone spoke about.

Interpretations of Ikat and Pochampally in 8-bit game pixels is a genius move, we think.

Also, everyone needs space, people!

Flowy fabrics are in, especially for formal wear. In a tropical country like India, and for the sake of comfort the world over, people are seeing the virtue in abandoning the sharp suit for more statement pieces. Think blouses with bell sleeves and prints, printed formal pants with plain shirts, and jackets in a variety of cuts and styles. We’d go so far as to say that you should think of one statement accessory in the collection to lift up all the Boring formal wear that all of us inadvertently own. Excited yet? Thanks, Saaksha and Kinni!

2. Kunal Rawal

We love Kunal Rawal’s collection because it comes as a breath of fresh air in the parched men’s formalwear section this Fashion Week. It’s still super cool to wear formal-ish suits and all-black this festive season too, guys!

Also, come to think of out, wardrobes should always be function over fancy, and while it’s nice to have the flower-embroidered jackets, we all need evergreen pieces that can be adapted to a variety of occasions.

And that is precisely what this collection brings to the ramp, and to wardrobes. We highly recommend including some earthy hues in the formal menswear collections this time. They add a nice touch to an array of blues and blacks.

We also like the idea of using self-designed motifs on pants and jackets for an extra layer of detail. Dinner jackets in shades of orange and burnt umber, details on trousers, and brogues with extra motifs at the toe cap- all recommended.

Did we mention athleisure? A wholly tailored suit with pants that mimic tracks are in right now, and this is a trend you can adapt for both genders with relative ease.

3. Amit Aggarwal

Bringing some much-needed sass to women’s evening wear is Amit Aggarwal. We particularly love his silhouettes because of the sheer global appeal of those gowns. Here’s a cocktail dress that one could pull of absolutely anywhere in the world.

Shades of grey and bronze, a dress separated into coordinates, African culture inspired gowns- is there any better way to go global? Also, grey is a color that is kind to all skin tones, and in all climates, so that’s an added plus too. Think cocktail dresses with one central motif, and add in geometric details.

Another way to adapt Amit Aggarwal’s collection into your stores, apart from the gowns, is to design peplum tops in metallics, tailored pants and thinking of bow pants a la Emma Watson.

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Supriya Ghurye is the founder and owner of Fuel4Fashion. She is a Freelance Fashion Designer and Brand Consultant helping fashion brands to create great products from idea to launch. Fuel4Fashion social links: Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram

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Creating A Successful Fashion Brand

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design team, fabrics, fashion, fashion brands, Fashion Business, fashion illustrations, fashion labels, fashion sketches, freelance fashion designer, mood board, pre-production samples, Product design, product development, proto, selling price, Size sets, Supriya Ghurye, technical designer

Image courtesy : http://www.imodae.com

Today, several professionals from domains other than fashion choose to set up an apparel or accessories business when they look for a switch in careers.

However, starting and running a fashion label is no child’s play. For one, consistency is important as a certain form of apparel attracts and retains customers with specific preferences. Then, there is the actual design process itself. Moreover, you need to make careful choices about every aspect of business such as operations, production and sales.

Given all these elements, is there a way to streamline the process of creating and running a fashion label? We say yes! This article helps you understand some of the basics.

1. What Is Your Plan?

All those adages about failing to plan stand true in the context of fashion design. Plan out every single aspect of your label, including the ‘known unknowns’, or risks. Here are a few questions to ask yourself:

• What is the niche I will be operating in?
• Who is my ideal target consumer?
• How can I stay consistent with design even as trends change?
• Will I launch the entire collection at one go?
• How do I reach my ideal consumer? Which platforms (online/ offline) are they currently present on?
• How is my production team and process going to work?
• How can I gauge interest for my product?
• What is my distribution plan? Which sales channels will I be selling through?

Asking questions and answering them in granular detail helps you plan your business’s finances, your own commitment and exit strategy if any, your pitch to future investors, and most importantly, your parameters for when your creative business is succeeding or failing.

2. Who Is Your Team?

No one can live as an island, and it holds true for creative services too. The business idea may be your vision, but you still need an execution team. Specifically, in the fashion domain, you have several steps to think of- design, production, marketing, sales and analytics.

This is where a team of experienced professionals can come in handy.

Today, it is more a norm than the exception to outsource design to a skilled team that understands your business considerations and your target audience very well. Such a team can help you plug gaps in your own creative process, work with you to design a saleable product and help you understand the nuances of what makes a readymade garment viable.

3. How Are You Making It Happen?

Now that you have a sound plan and an excellent team, you can shift gears up into execution. You can either choose to create and sell in small volumes or you can go big and outsource manufacturing.

In both cases, your design team can help brief the production team about the expected output, tweak the samples and smoothen out any kinks while manufacturing the products.

Every product requires a storage facility, and this is something you need to think of very carefully. Too much inventory can eat into your working capital, while too little can cause you to lose out on sales.

4. What Is Your Selling Price?

In the planning stage, you would already have considered the pricing aspect. It is always good practice to have an optimistic price point (the standard price a few days’ post launch), a moderate price point (your launch price- early bird offer) and a pessimistic price point (your product price during sales season). Ensure that all of these prices stay above your cost price.

Once the manufacturing process is complete, reconsider your price points and adjust for any incidental expenses you may have incurred.

5. Where Are You Selling?

There’s no doubt that your choice of sales channels establishes your label’s position in the market. A product sold at Harrods is expected to be higher in price and better in quality than one sold at Primark.

Sales channels also determine your operational model itself. Do you have stores of your own, or do you stock products in some other store’s aisles? Perhaps, you’d like to ignore the offline channels entirely and sell exclusively through certain marketplaces.

The choices you make determine not just how your fashion label is run, but also the means you employ to reach consumers and bring them to these channels.

Once all of these steps have been completed and your fashion label is a real, quantifiable business, do remember to review and course-correct. Understanding what your consumers want and tweaking your label to suit those needs is the best thing you can do to build a sustainable business model and a fashion label that everyone is waiting to wear.

Stay tuned as we go into detail about each of these business aspects in the coming months. Subscribe to our newsletter and we promise you’ll be the first one to know when we publish. Meanwhile, here’s something to get your brain cells working on the business aspects of fashion.

 

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Supriya Ghurye is the founder and owner of Fuel4Fashion. She is a Freelance Fashion Designer and Brand Consultant helping fashion brands to create great products from idea to launch. Fuel4Fashion social links: Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram

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London Fashion Week Vs New York Fashion Week – Part 2

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apparels, colors, fabrics, fashion blog, freelance fashion designer, garments, London Fashion Week, metallics, New York fashion week, pastel, pink, Spring 14, Supriya Ghurye

We have already made a subtle emphasis of the mood that will rule Spring Summer 2014 in Part 1. Now we bring to you the hues, the tints, the shades that graced the London and New York fashion week.

Colors at London Fashion Week :

Pink hues and shades of blue by Burberry, Preen by Thornton Bregazzi,  Temperley London,  J.J.S. Lee, Antonio Berardi and Eudon Choi on the LFW runway personified the delicacy of collection. Glimpses of Neons at  Preen by Thornton Bregazzi midst the dominant pale pink at LFW SS14 was heart throbbing.  White, black, blue remained few of the evergreen colors.

London Fashion Week 2014 – Burberry
Image courtesy : http://goo.gl/AAqLkv

London Fashion Week 2014 : Electrifying neons by Thornton Bregazzi
Image courtesy : http://goo.gl/JdHgza

Pastels of all shades were also prominent featuring in the collections of Zoe Jordan, Christopher Kane and Peter Pilotto, and in the make-up for Burberry at LFW.

London Fashion Week 2014 : Christopher Kane – Pastel shades
Image courtesy : http://goo.gl/C884vL

Colors at New York Fashion Week :

Black and white ruled the roost at NYFW with glimpses of pink and pale blue, green ,yellow, orange. The show revolved around pastels and pale shades with Prabal Gurung’s pearlescent pink and sky-blue draped dresses, Jill Stuart’ s rock ‘n’ roll collection in black and white complemented by pale blue color extravagated  on flouncy pleats in short dresses and skirts.

New York Fashion Week 2014 : Tommy Hilfiger’s collection.
Image Courtesy : http://goo.gl/k64Y7j

New York Fashion Week 2014 – Marc by Marc Jacobs, Prabal Gurung, Philosophy, Alexander Wang, MM6, DKNY, Adam Selman.
Image Courtesy : http://goo.gl/v484k7

Rag & Bone played with metallics, and featured a palette of black, white, pink, peach, sand and aqua at NYFW.

New York Fashion Week 2014 : The Rag & Bone – black & white palette
Image Courtesy : http://goo.gl/lCBnVp

So these were some of the shades that painted the runway for Spring 14. We will soon get you the fabrics, the prints, the graphics that fuelled the collection in sync with the theme.