Seventh India Fashion Week still scheduled to begin on April 5
India’s top clothing extravaganza, India Fashion Week, will begin on April 5th, 2006, despite recent complications.
After six years of partnership, the Fashion Design Company of India (FDCI), which heads India Fashion Week, has parted ways with Lakme cosmetics, which will sponsor Lakme Fashion Week in association with event management company IMG. Lakme has scheduled their Fashion Week at the same time as the seminal IFW, which has created a schism in the fashion world. Rathi Vinay Jha, chief of FDCI, said in an interview, “It is an attempt to divide the fashion industry. India needs only one fashion week; the rest are unnecessary. They are only divisive forces.” However, she also expressed assurance that the split is “not going to affect the India Fashion Week in any way.”
IFW’s second trial has been the demolition drive aimed at Delhi’s high fashion outlets, which will affect several of the designers slated to participate. A plea to the courts to stay the demolition has recently been withdrawn by the members of the fashion community who submitted it, but the extravaganza is set to continue as scheduled.
The Fashion Week will actually span five days, and multi-ramp showings will be held for the first time in an effort to more effectively budget the event’s time. These five days will unveil the fall and winter collections of sixty-five designers from all over India, and promises to showcase all the glamour they have to offer.