Welcome to the busiest time of the year!
This indeed is an exuberant time for all of
us at the retail fraternity. This is the season
that morphs India to its brightest and most
jubilant avatar of the year with every calendar
week dotted with festivals, celebrations and
weddings. It is the time the entire nation
comes together to feast, pray, share love and
above all fl aunt resplendent ethnic fashion.
Ethnic wear is an intrinsic part of the festive
season. Infact, traditionally, ethnic wear
was solely reserved for festivals. But, in the
recent years, the category has evolved in
massive proportions, especially the women’s
section. Keeping pace with India’s massive
strides towards modernization, the ethnic
wear category has been resuscitated with
keen focus towards the modern consumers
penchant for comfort and practicality. Today,
the category includes a wide spectrum
of cuts, fi ts, silhouettes – from inherently
classic to more contemporary avatars that
are as comfortable for daily wear as they are
appropriate for corporate boardrooms.
This evolution ensued an increasing preference of
the young and consuming class towards Indian
ethnic wear as well as boost the dynamics of the
market like never before. Today, pegged at an
estimated Rs. 112,893 crores and constituting
approximately 32 percent share of the total Indian
apparel market, the ethnic wear category in India
holds a very promising future.
In this one-off issue on ethnic wear, we track the
evolution of the category in the recent years as
well as the shift in customer preferences. It was
an uphill task for us to gather all this data for this
fast growing market has not yet matured enough
to prompt proper research documentation.
Nevertheless, the IMAGES Fashion Bureau did
an incredible job of delving deep and putting
pieces together to give you all readers a slew of
dedicated articles on the pervading trends and
the immense opportunities teeming in this new
market segment.
I hope you enjoy reading the issue as much as we
enjoyed putting it together.
Cheers!
The June issue of Images Business of Fashion is led by a research on the Indian casualwear market, its size, growth, evolution and key trends and opportunities and growth over the years. The issue also talks to smart casual leaders like the Denmark-based clothing company–Bestseller, Raymond Apparel Ltd’s Parx, and French born fashion major Celio. It also features Tom Tailor’s online collaboration for India. The issue puts together our pick on of the most eye-catching ad campaign of the season—the smart one on a new look for every day of the week by Vero Moda. In the InFashion section of the magazine, Dan Cotton, EVP APAC, WGSN shares insights on the new trend watching feature WGSN IN Stock. This section also looks at how palazzo trousers are making a style statement, be it casual or Indian ethnic section among different age groups of women. We also take a look at some new launches, seminars and conferences that created a lot of buzz.
