Indian designers need to follow fashion forecast

Monday, 12 April 2004, 19:30 IST   |    3 Comments
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MUMBAI: It's called fashion forecasting and the lack of this is why Indian designers have not been able to make it big, says Harleen Sabharwal, one of the few practitioners of the art in the country. "The whole world follows these forecasts except India. This is where Indian fashion has gone wrong. In India, prêt lines do not have the required level of acceptance because they are not based on the forecast," Sabharwal told IANS. The 37-year-old has designed for brands like Robert Stock, Perry Ellis, Bugle Boy, Walmart, River Island, C&A and Morgan and also worked on a book that forecast fashion trends, which will be in vogue this year and the next. She explains the next two years will not talk about "earth themes" and "the development of a range of clothes", but will concentrate on the "development of an item". "This item of clothing can be used with any combination. Thus, there is a possibility to see a layered skirt worn with knee length boots," Sabharwal elaborates. Asked about the future of fashion forecasting in India, she said: "The Indian market has opened to international brands. Today, the consumer is aware of unisex colours and thus, fashion designers should use forecast as an integral part of fabric and design development. "Off beat colours and a mixture of fabric will be in vogue." Sabharwal is the only fashion forecaster to be appointed a member of the Fashion Design Council of India and has just completed a trend forecast workshop at S.N.D.T. University, Mumbai. She moved to Mumbai from New Delhi after the 1984 anti-Sikh riots that followed the assassination of the then prime minister Indira Gandhi. Commenting on the colours that will be in vogue, Sabharwal predicted the use of "off beat colours": "Designers will not use pink but will make use of blush and phlox; not blue but dusk and midnight; not brown but tobacco, nut or champagne; not green but jade and turquoise." On the use of fabric, the forecaster said clothes in the next two years will have "two or three fabrics interwoven together, multiple finishing techniques and more than one pattern like a combination of checks, polka dots and floral prints in one outfit. "The styling will also be a combination of various moods and styles, and it is possible that we may see a mixture between summer and winter". She thinks trend forecasting is the mood, the idea, the inspiration, the emotion, the direction and the awareness for the existence of fashion. "Fashion is 99 percent research and one percent creativity." A regular visitor to the "Premiere Vision" world forecast fair in Paris, Sabharwal researches her fashion forecasting on the high streets of Milan and London. "Research is just walking down the street, window shopping, watching people. Finding clues as to why fashion is currently expressed as it is."You have to observe, record and experience the events that share current lifestyles," says the fashion consultant of over 12 years.
Source: IANS
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