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A new award is on the ramp to rate the hot brands of the Indian readymade scene. By Shamni Pande
No prizes for guessing this, the event itself seems to be a beginning. For the first time, the ready-to-wear garment industry made a genuine attempt to reward the most admired brands, retail outlets, companies and professionals in the business of fashion for their outstanding performance in 1999-2000. "While there is no dearth of platforms for designers and their niche offerings, very little attempt has been made to actually give factual information on the stuff that clothe the hoi polloi," says Amitabh Taneja, Editor & Publisher, Images, the bi-monthly trade magazine with a circulation of 25,000 copies. The function was a joint effort of Images and Siyarams. Now, neither is 25,000 copies significant nor an award function in itself something that should create a stir. What is relevant is the approach that this magazine, which generates almost 80 per cent of revenues through ads, has adopted to capture a niche audience willing to grab any crumb of information that is thrown their way to make sense of the burgeoning Rs 5000-crore retail organised market. Of this figure, Rs 4,400 crore is accounted for by the non-food segment that is the garment industry. As per retail consultants KSA Technopak, the retail tally is slated to go up to Rs 30,000 by 2005 and the non-food segment will again account for Rs 24,000 crore. ``In the last two years our circulation has climbed dramatically. We have been carrying out commissioned researches by ORG-MARG to provide us comprehensive information on the shirt market, trouser market, and retail market,'' says Taneja who's seen his investment in research pay off since the first issue of the magazine hit the stands in 1992. After all, it takes little to give awards, the plank is relevant. An initiative from a neutral industry representative such as a magazine has potentially higher chances of gathering an equity that could become a crucial benchmark,'' feels Dipankar Haldar, Consultant, KSA Technopak. The recent awards from Images too follow in the wake of a nationwide ORG-MARG consumer survey involving 5000 up-market menswear buyers in 11 major cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, and Chandigarh. The most admired shirt brand went to the `honest shirt' Peter England, Lee emerged as the most admired jeans brand, Zodiac as the tie brand, Rohit Bal as the most popular designer for menswear, and VIP (it has a reason to strut after all!) is the most admired innerwear brand. A special jury got the task of deciding industry nominations where B.S Nagesh walked away as the most admired apparel retail professional, Kailash Bhatia of ColorPlus as the icon of apparel brand professional, Provogue bagged it for being the most outstanding apparel product launch, Madura Garments for being the most admired apparel company and Nagesh again! For Shoppers' Stop being the most admired apparel retailer. So what's in store for the future? ``Make 'Images' a monthly affair, rope in the trade at Hong Kong as it's a major sourcing base for the fashion world. We intend to rate the suppliers and their product there next and, of course, make these awards a regular annual event,'' says Taneja. |
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At a certain level, the difference begins
to blur. The Images Fashion Awards 2000, given away recently at Mumbai,
reflected this: Park Avenue is not just the most admired menswear brand in
country, it also bags the accolade for being the most popular trouser
brand.