The story so far...

Day 1 – Monday 1 December

Morning

Having arrived safely the previous day, the group set out for their first meeting at the Institute of Apparel Management full of excitement and high spirits. They started with a tour of the college where they met some students in pattern cutting and found out more about the courses. They then got a brilliant overview of the Indian fashion sector from Dr Darlie Koshy, Director General of all the education institutes that come under the Apparel Export Promotion Council. Each of the six finalists introduced their work which led to some really useful individual advice from Dr Koshy, as well as a general discussion about ethical trading. He also suggested they could get statistical market research through NCAER. It was a great way to set the scene.

Lunch and shopping!

Six famished finalists were taken to Dilli Haat Food and Craft Bazaar for a delicious lunch and the chance to see and buy a great range of crafts from around the country from the people who actually made them. It was the last day of the Dastkar Nature Bazaar, organized by Dastkar a national NGO for crafts and craftspeople. The bazaar is not just a showcase for indigenous techniques, textures and designs, but a forum for environmental, social and cultural concerns, bringing together ideas and issues as well as people and products. The finalists were given a lovely personal tour of the different stalls and regions by Dhirendra Singh (India YFE08 applicant) who is the founder of Five Strands, a studio for art, design and research which provides technical services to the craft sector. The finalists loved the ideas and bought bags of presents and inspiration.

Afternoon

Dinesh Singh – Additional Commissioner of Handlooms at the Ministry of Textiles.

Mr Singh offered an insight to the government support for the 6,500,000 handloom weavers in India, which includes financial and legal advice and a quality mark. The finalists loved the huge directories of all the different samples of material available, which provided essential information about cost, minimum quantity and dimensions.

Evening

Drinks at the British High Commission

The group met Kiran Sharma, who leads on fashion and clothing at UKTI, over drinks with other British and Indian companies. They had a great time talking to Anand Prakash, runner up of the Indian YDE08, who explained his paper craft business and how the award had really opened up opportunities for him in the UK market.

Dinner was at Veda, one of the best restaurants in Delhi, designed by Rohit Bal, one of the best fashion designers in India.

Day 2 – Tuesday 2 December

Morning

David Abraham, co-founder and designer at Abraham & Thakore www.abrahamandthakore.com

The finalists got a taste of Delhi traffic as they were caught in a jam that made the next day’s papers. Eventually they met the charming David Abraham, who explained his background in textiles. He started out sourcing garments for a big international corporations, which allowed him to develop contacts and experience but he soon became disillusioned and decided to go it alone to ensure the highest possible quality was achieved. One of his first orders was with the Conran Shop and from there his business has gone from strength to strength – his advice was to make your mistakes while working for the big boys – on somebody else’s business account!

Manish Arora – cancelled!

Sanchit Mehra – Director of Sarita Couture House

Unfortunately, the scheduled meeting with Manish was not possible as he hadn’t returned from New Zealand. Instead, the group had a brilliant impromptu meeting with 26 year-old Sanchit, who manages the family business which specializes in manufacturing and designing bridal wear.

His main customer base is the Indian community in the UK. The group fell upon the samples and were amazed by the manufacturing work of Swarovski crystals, sequins and beading – techniques that are simply not available in the UK. He is now moving into a new area of glamorous evening dresses, manufacturing the designs for Rockmay, an international designer based in the UK. The group were buzzing with ideas for new designs using these techniques and there was a lively discussion and advice about pricing, market placement and new contacts.

Lunch

Best Italian ever at Tonino!

Afternoon

Gaurav Gupta at Akaaro

The group met Gaurav at his studio space at Asola Farms, a beautiful collective of studios owned by Mark Knowles, a UK furniture designer living in Delhi. Gaurav explained his woven textile business, set up in 2006, and showed them his collection of beautiful scarves and pieces. The group were able to watch the weavers’ painstaking technique – literally one thread at a time – producing stunning hand-woven garments.

He spoke about how he had brought the highly skilled weavers from West Bengal and the mutual learning process that took place. Gaurav only exhibits through galleries in the UK and currently works innovatively with steel woven through scarves. After hearing so much about the craft techniques, the group were thrilled to see the process in action.

Evening

Dinner at Smokehouse Grill

There was no time to stop as they had a brilliant dinner with seven of the Indian fashion entrepreneur finalists. There was lots of animated discussion and promises of further collaboration as they circulated around the table and exchanged ideas and contacts.

Day 3 – Wednesday 3 December

Morning

A traditional Indian welcome awaited the group at the Sunil Sethi Design Alliance – each of the finalists was presented with flower garlands, they lit diyas and took photographs!

Sunil Sethi gave them an inspirational master class in fashion entrepreneurship through a personal history from mishaps of selling t-shirts, bouffant which didn’t bouff to becoming one of the most sought after sourcing agent in India. He now represents a range of the best known UK brands in India including Habitat.

Valuable lessons included always deliver, do what your core competence is, be loyal to your customers, keep your integrity, being a leader is important but backed by an efficient team along with a strong administrative support. Never give up!

As the president of the Fashion Design Council of India he took great interest in the group’s initiatives and keen to see their work and invited them to exhibit at the fashion week with the caveat that they find a collaborative Indian partner. The group was fired up with his generous offer and energy.

One of his mentees was the NIFT alumni Samant Chauhan who founded Sam Stitch, an award winning men’s wear collection from ethically made silk. Samant was also the runner up of the YFE08 and will be coming to the UK in February. His creations were very popular with the group and Sunil Sethi encouraged an impromptu sale – each one of them either bought the clothes or placed an order with him.

Afternoon

After a long drive later the finalist were met with an oasis of calm at the Global Arts Village, an arts residency where they met with a varied group of established fashion designers including Alpana Bawa, Anju Modi and Nitin Bal Chauhan. After getting to know each other over a delicious lunch in the garden they went over to the workplace to see presentations of their work. The hosts Mayank Singh Kaul and Himanshu Verma (India winner of the YVAE award) talked about their Monsoon Fashion Festival, an exhibition of multimedia pieces from various designers inspired by the rains. They also talked about their recent research on metrosexuality.

Then they met with Rajeev Sethi, a leading South Asian artist and designer noted internationally at his studio. After an examination of each of their practices Rajeev made them think more closely about their aims and aspirations. Sissy was offered to return to India and meet with local communities and work with them.

The group were lucky enough to be invited to dinner at the home of William Bissell, owner and director of fabindia, one of the most successful clothing and lifestyle retailers. He and his wife were joined by Prableen Sabhaney, responsible for communications at the company who facilitated a case study of fabindia by the Indian Institute of Management, commissioned by BC.

Day 4 Thirsday 4 December

Jaipur

After a very early start the group had time to reflect on their time in Delhi as they travelled by train to Jaipur in Rajasthan. Their first meeting was at the Gem Palace, where they got an historical introduction to gems and jewelry in India. They were able to wander around the store, trying on ancient pieces of valuable gems and buy buy buy.

After a quick lunch they met Ayush Kasliwal at his design store. He gave them lots of practical advice about pricing, contracts and working with regional craftspeople. Annegret was particularly interested as he had grown up in Ghana and they began dreaming of collaborative projects which might bring him back there. He also suggested some names of people doing block printing that they might meet.

They then went over to the Indian Institute of Craft and Design where they met the director, Sangita Shroff and other faculty and students. The group each presented their work and brainstormed possible collaborative projects. They were particularly interested in the possibilites of using new Elena’s technology in the traditional crafts.

Following up on Ayush’s advice, they went for a quick meeting at the workshop of Gitu, who runs a traditional block printing organization.