Unless you have been living under a rock, you will know that the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week concluded a few days ago in New York.
As usual, I was super-excited to see a few brown faces in the "usual" mix of MJ, 3.1 Phillip Lim, DVF, Zac Posen, Badgley Mischka (and...errr...Project Runway?)
2 stand-outs: Naeem Khan and Sabyasachi Mukherjee.
Khan, who did not exactly get the most positive reviews from papers such as the Post (but then again, who really cares what they think?) surprisingly had a few wearable, cutesy, fun dresses...wait, is that what made them so unappealing to the Post?
(Pssst...Eva Langoria is a fan, how bad could he be?! Other clients include Beyonce, Marcia Gay Harden and Princess Aga Khan...In the States, his collection is carried by Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman, and Neiman Marcus.)
Sabyasachi is a fairly more well known Indian designer, especially in India (he has even designed for a few Bollywood films)...He seemed to have a more obvious nod to his roots in his collection...(umm, the Post agrees with me on this one...ha!)...He's also known as 'the King of Kitsch'...decide for yourself, I guess!
Ummm...what is with the pseudo-hipster/sexy librarian black frames the models are wearing?
By the way, this is something I kind of stumbled upon when I was online at work (sshh...don't tell!)...I put the interesting/related bits in italics. Enjoy!
From portfolio.com:
Lynn Forester de Rothschild: ...You know India has luxury in its DNA. All you've got to do is look at the maharajas and look at the Taj Mahal. There's no Hermès or Louis Vuitton that's going to tell India anything about luxury. Luxury is a very interesting, undeveloped piece of India. I don't think it will be a big piece for a long time, because of the income level, but I think it's interesting. We do think luxury when we think retail, but we also think more mainstream, aspirational brands and opportunities
Lloyd Grove: And the country obviously has an exploding middle class, so that could be a good market internally-or are you thinking for export as well?
L.R.: I am thinking more about the domestic markets, more about the growth of the domestic market, because 10 million people are entering the middle class every year in India. You know, there are more billionaires in India than anyplace else. Let me put it this way: Every day in India, the entire nation of Great Britain is on the train, one way or another. So the numbers are pretty colossal. Seventy million people in India can afford anything they want. It's a small percent, but that's a reasonable number.
L.G.: That's a pretty healthy market.
L.R.: Two hundred fifty million are middle-class, so you might not go for the Chanel glasses, but you sure could go for an Estée Lauder lipstick or a Starbucks coffee.
Lloyd Grove: And the country obviously has an exploding middle class, so that could be a good market internally-or are you thinking for export as well?
L.R.: I am thinking more about the domestic markets, more about the growth of the domestic market, because 10 million people are entering the middle class every year in India. You know, there are more billionaires in India than anyplace else. Let me put it this way: Every day in India, the entire nation of Great Britain is on the train, one way or another. So the numbers are pretty colossal. Seventy million people in India can afford anything they want. It's a small percent, but that's a reasonable number.
L.G.: That's a pretty healthy market.
L.R.: Two hundred fifty million are middle-class, so you might not go for the Chanel glasses, but you sure could go for an Estée Lauder lipstick or a Starbucks coffee.
- P
