The Past couple of years have seen the emergence of several new Indian

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designers. Their swift rise and the general acknowledgement of their talent has left many scratching their heads in wonder. Are they any savvier than the veteran designers of yesteryear who launched their label after much deliberation and had to wait for ages for their efforts to bear fruit? Is it all hype or is this new design brigade really redefining Indian fashion while raking in the moolah?

According to Jai & Parvesh, NIFT graduates who presented their collection at the Paris Fashion Week as well as the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week, the going wasn't always easy. The biggest challenge they faced was to master business acumen. Says Jai, “Indian fashion schools do not teach students how to go about marketing their clothes, how to launch a label or how to deal with buyers”.

Fresh out of fashion school and short on resources, most young designers start their careers supplying clothes on consignments to storeowners. Often frustrated by a clash of ideas between them and the storeowners, they embark on opening their own stores, financed by bank loans and the kindness of supportive friends and family. According to Jai, what sets the current generation apart is that “we’re ready to take risks and not afraid of failing as long as we do it our way”. He cites the art of money management as top priority to breakthrough into the fashion world. His fashion firm began by exporting beachwear to Greece but with no proper knowledge of fairs, companies, and stores they soon found everything, from the documentation process to pricing clothes, a problem. In the end they came to the realisation that they only way was to seek financial help and take the advice of other designers. Today they retail under two brand names — Raasleela and Blue Coral, to leading stores of France, Greece, South America , Turkey, West Asia, Spain and the US. While they're known in India for ethnic outfits, they made their name overseas for their resort wear, some of which you’d see on the likes of Paris Hilton. Their estimated turnover is 50 lakhs per annum, which is quite commendable, considering they only began working five years ago.

As for designer Zubair Kirmani, who hails from Kashmir, it was all about realising a dream —of one day launching a label under the name Bounipun (Chinar leaf). Hardly a year after finishing a course in fashion from Bangalore, Zubair, working on a tight budget, bought a sewing machine and burnt the midnight oil to create clothes of his choice. Zubair cites Fashion week 2006 as his breakthrough moment; It got him noticed and orders from major designer boutiques in the country began rolling in.

Success may seem to have come easy to him, but Zubair says he’s not one to rest on his laurels. His long-term goal now is to establish a series of lifestyle stores for which he is accumulating expertise. Zubair claims he is in no hurry to accept invites for any international fashion week and is busy saving and collecting funds instead. “I want to open a factory in Kashmir, employ more labourers, qualify for big loans and create a lifestyle brand label that has everything from clothes to trendy accessories,” he says. Zubair wants his ethnic origin to be his trademark. To that end he tries to infuse images of Kashmir into his clothes, be it in the fabric, motifs or colours he uses. “I want to get a poetic feel in every garment,” he says. Today, his label retails out of 30 stores, some of which include Hotpink, Bombay Electric, Ensemble, Melange, Evoluzione (Chennai and Hyderabad), J Boutique (Bahrain), Dejavous (Spain) and Masala (Spain).

Even as the freshman accept their first rounds of applause and weave grand plans, the old guard takes note. Veteran designer Ritu Beri says, “The corporatisation of designer brands is increasingly happening around the country and now retailing is becoming a huge part of the fashion industry in India”. Earlier, it was relatively harder to get noticed. As Rocky S says, “It has been over a decade in the fashion industry for me now, and when I first started off, there weren’t as many accessible platforms for designers, as there are today with fashion weeks, metro city fashion tours such as Blenders Pride. Thus, the biggest challenge was to make my brand presence felt”.

He says he chose to take the Bollywood route to success as in his time it was very difficult to get noticed any other way.

Today, the biggest challenge for a new designer seems to be to reach potential clients and to become a household name. Other challenges include distribution, promotion and finding financial backing to bankroll the huge cost of building a brand. Beri admits that her contemporaries invested much more money during the initial stages of their careers trying to participate in international shows and make a name for themselves at home in India.

Another young designer, Archana Kochhar says, “retailing for stores is a good way to start as one makes mistakes at other’s expense and you get time to understand the market”. She now sells under her own label to London and New York, and within the country from Bombay. But it isn’t all smooth sailing. Having to cater to an international clientele means many designers are often forced to juxtapose intricate Indian detailing with Western silhouttes in a bid to create “something global”. Whatever it takes, seems to be the guiding motto for those just starting out, their sights firmly fixed upon a distant star.