It Happens Only In India

The term – ‘Fashion Show’ or Fashion Week’ has been most ill-used in India. I have written enough on the subject – on how India has more ‘fashion weeks’ in India than the sum total of fashion weeks held in Fashion Capitals of New York, Paris, Milan and London. In India we had a fashion week named after an individual – Prasad Bidapa Fashion Week. You can read it here in my earlier post – The Term – ‘Fashion Week’ Has Become A Joke: http://wp.me/p1C8a1-1gb

Recently we had a designer taking a bow twice during his show and who could it be but Manish Malhotra. Then we had a ‘Indian Fashion Summit’ where fashion designers, choreographers and fashion scribes were awarded but surprisingly I had never heard of the winners in my 15-years plus career as a fashion journalist.

And now we have a gentleman who has introduced the dirty-trick of horse-trading in fashion. I though horse-trading happened only in politics. Vijay Singh who got into fashion just because his wife – Jyotsna Tiwari was never approved by the jury at FDCI shows. He started ‘Bridal Week’ in Mumbai. This year he is doing the ‘Bridal Week’ in Delhi and timed it just before the Delhi Couture Week organised by FDCI. Singh always had an axe to grind with FDCI. Anyway the designers are poached with huge sums of money courtesy two big sponsors that back the Bridal Week. Have you ever heard anywhere in the world of a designer getting paid to do a fashion show? It happens only in India! Vijay Singh has poached the popular designers and the five biggies of Indian Fashion Fraternity are offered an average of Rupees 40 Lakhs to just participate in the Bridal Week.

No doubt the Delhi government levies Entertainment Tax on Fashion Shows. When organisors like Vijay Singh pay hefty amounts to designers to show their collection, it is something like ‘performance fee’ that showbiz people charge. Hence government is right in levying Entertainment Tax because these events no way help in establishing that a fashion show is a ‘Trade Show’.