It’s time now for fashion to take to the ramp again. Actually fashion is on the ramp one way or the other through the year in these past few years. Designers have gone on record saying they do not know how to cope with the fashion weeks that have sprung up across the country, each claiming to be different even as they follow doggedly in each other’s footsteps.

Then there are the fashion extravaganzas, the route some companies have taken to legitimise their brand advertising, through surrogate methods. All of which means at any given time, there is a show on somewhere, in some city or town in this country, almost round the year. Little wonder then, that designers feel out of breath trying to cope. “If one just keeps in step with all the shows, when does one find time for creativity,” is what designers like Narendra Kumar are asking themselves.

But come March and the two competing fashion week organisers inevitably cross swords, as they draw up and publicise their lists of designers, and start creating ripples that grow into waves, with the press taking on itself to make news of the skirmishes the two bodies engage in. Often, in the process, forgetting the real business of fashion, and the real reason the Fashion Week circus came into being for.

It is time though to examine what one hopes this season will bring to those who have a serious passion for fashion.

For students of fashion, fashion weeks, be they in Delhi, Mumbai or Melbourne, hold the same promise. Watching the designs that are shown on the ramp is one way to understand changing trends, comprehending how style statements can be created with fabric, stitch and silhouette. After all, fashion is something that has been working with the same elements since the days of the toga; it is only the innovations that creative minds bring to the elements that keep the kaleidoscope changing. Silhouettes wax and wane, hemlines rise and fall, colours go from soft and pastel to jewel tones to contrasts, and the cycle of fashion keeps turning.

Each fashion week is a window to ways of making history and cultural changes create new statements, and the designer who manages to transform the elements into something new, yet classic, has a valuable lesson for the student of fashion to learn from and take forward.

How much indeed will the coming weeks in the two cities live up to this expectation of the many serious students who watch the TV screens hoping for guidance?

Equally vital stakeholders in what the designers will decide to send on to the ramp this season are the countless craftsmen who work invisibly behind the scenes to embellish cloth with their magic designs, their craft transforming fabric to exotic material.

India is rich in the magic of handicraft, the infinite variety of stitches and threads that can grow patterns of colour and texture on plain fabric is now being harvested by famous designers from all over the world. But even today, the craftsman is yet a humble unsung hero, who has yet to come into his own.

Lost to the public eye, except for a few lucky exceptions, their toils over needle and thread go largely under rewarded. And a quirk of fashion could for an entire season rob them of a means to income, should the ramp favour the unembellished garment, the unembroidered look. Then only the fact that the wedding season — as predictable as sunrise — can sustain their hope of continued income. What will the season ahead bode for them this year?

To the buyer who comes to India seeking to find creations that speak a different language that might please his more discerning clients, a week of fashion showings holds out the promise of exciting discoveries. In most cases this means looking for and finding clothes that have roots in the Indian fabric — so unique in its weave and so varied in its weight and feel from one region to another — but created with western professionalism and sensibilities. Ethnic wear is not always the order of the day outside India; a sari or a kurta or sherwani is something the western visitor to India will wear for an occasion or to attend a ceremony in this country. But the buyer knows that what will sell overseas is something that hints of the exotic in India but is acceptable as smart and semi formal or couture in the swish set.

Will the fashion weeks this year be able to meet this need is another question that comes to mind.

Let us hope then, that designers put their egos aside, and look to creating garments that can be a serious contribution to sustainable fashion in India, while also finding favour outside the country.

That the young blood that does find a footing on the ramp in either of the cities does not fall into the trap of glamorising themselves, but work to taking India a step closer to being one more destination for seekers of serious fashion.

That designers realise with some looking back at the rich heritage of individuality we have had as a country, to create looks that have nothing that is inspired by the west except the standardisation and perfection of finish. Then indeed, the two Fashion Weeks in Mumbai and Delhi can claim to be trendsetters truly, and head and shoulders above all the rest of the tamasha.