An online exclusive Q & A session with Rathi Vinay Jha- the newly elected Director General of Fashion Design council of India on LIFW and more…

Rathi Vinay Jha Visions and plans for Lakme India Fashion Week Though we plan to go biannual from 2006 onwards, this year is going to witness a lot new things too. We'll feature many more designers and large scale, organised buyers from both domestic as well as international arena. Fashion week this year will have 3-4 fashion shows in addtion to our practice of solo and double designer shows. We've also included accessory designers this year. International buyers or Indian buyers Both are equally important for us. Our aim is to get more credible buyers for our member designers. Though this industry has focused on exports for long but domestic revenue is growing rapidly with opened up markets and aggressive retailing in every city. Every designer has a certain market that he or she caters to. The current Indian Fashion scene I see increasing entry of foreign players entering the ever-growing Indian market. Indian designers need to build capacity so as to take all international competition head on. Same old same old models, stylists I disagree with that. Young talent and fresh faces have been seen at every LIFW. Last year we had about 7 new designers. As the biggest fashion platform in the country we've started conducting auditions for models and have had more than a dozen new models take on the ramp in 2004. Apart from accessory designers participating for the first time this year we have new faces even among choreographers, hair and makeup, backstage etc. On being the first woman Director of FDCI I don't see anything ironic in it. FDCI is in its initial stage being only 5-6 years old. Only two people have headed this council before me. Favourite designers who will steal the limelight I hope for the best for every one. Ultimately it is for buyers and media to comment. To know more on Rathi Vinay Jha log on to www.fdci.org