Menace of mediocrity

Are lack of originality and rampant copying pulling the fashion industry down

Just before the beginning of the recently concluded FDCI India Couture Week, ace designer JJ Valaya rued about mediocrity and lack of originality in collections, in a midnight post in Facebook.

In his post Valaya said, “The ‘REAL’ press release of some Indian ‘Couture’ designers nowadays: ‘...My collection this year celebrates Haute couture (really... Pronounce it please ) and is inspired by Our rich heritage and interpreted in a modern manner using hand embroideries (machines operated by hand = Hand) and luxurious fabrics (sourced from Nehru Place)...”

The next day, Rohit Bal too spoke about the same on his Facebook status. Rohit wrote, “What fascinates me more than knowledge is actually the complete lack of it. Within my own fraternity ..... I find so much blindness and ignorance that it astonishes me...”

Lack of creative criticism has led to the downfall of the industry, feels designer Rahul Mishra, who was among the designers showcasing at India Couture Week. “Today, the fashion industry is getting very business driven and what it is lacking is the voice of critics. In India people can buy media easily and through advertorials can propagate themselves and their collections easily unlike the West. When I showcase in Paris Fashion Week, I am very concerned about my collection reviews in newspapers and top fashion magazines the next day. There are too many watchdogs who are keeping a check on you and comparing your earlier work with your latest. This keeps designers on their toes and ensures that they do not take too many inspirations and be innovative and original as much as possible. Even a brand like Dior is not spared even though they are one of the biggest advertisers abroad. I have seen critics ripping apart the brand’s collection if they feel it lacks originality. But here in India, the scenario is very different. Only a handful of writers write honestly about the collection,” he says.

Talking about the comments of JJ Valaya and Rohit Bal, he says, “These are veterans of the industry with over 25 years of experience and if they are voicing their concerns then I am sure they must have noticed something and felt a genuine need for coming out with their opinion.”

Agreeing with him, designer Nida Mahmood affirms, “To quite an extent, I agree with JJ Valaya and Rohit Bal’s comments. There are certain people who are copy-pasting ideas of other designers and easily pulling them off as their own. They lack originality and do not have the courage to take risks with their original design. The only reason for this, I feel, is that they lack the confidence to showcase something original and have no clear vision for the brand. They are simply cashing in on someone else’s hard work.”

The industry has been talking about the issue for a long time, she adds, “It is not that people were not speaking about this issue earlier. We have been discussing the subject for some time now. It is just that since someone has come out and spoken openly, it has become a controversial issue.”

The reality of the garment industry today is very different from what it was before and anybody can create rip-offs easily these days, points out designer Rina Dhaka. “Everything today is just a click away. I have seen people going with images of a designer’s collection and getting them recreated by their karigars. This is also a theft of a kind. It takes a designer at least six months to come up with an original collection, and recreating it takes just a week. To be the former is always a difficult task. I remember, back in the 90s when I was getting married, I realised the churidars stitched at that time were too big and loose, and I started importing lycra for churidars for myself. I also started retailing the same for my clients but today, one can find lycra churidars in local markets very easily,” she points out and continues, “I believe the rip-off segment is thriving because of the herd mentality of people. They want to wear what the celebs have been spotted in but what they forget is that most of them are tall and have a body shape that complements the look. Today there is no innovation — it’s a mass reproduction of what poor Deepika or Sonam are told to wear. Most of the fashion exhibition segment is thriving on this reproduction business.”