Lakme Fashion Week: One of the biggest fashion establishment

All the fashion fanatic people must be familiar with the term "Lakme Fashion Week", it is known to be one of the biggest fashion establishments of the Indian fashion industry. The Indian fashion industry wouldn't be summarized without the mentioning of, Lakme Fashion Week.

Launch & History of Lakme Fashion Week

Lakme Fashion Week(LFW)  was established in 1999 by the Fashion Design Council Of India(FDCI) in association with IMG Reliance Limited, their partner and international event management company. Lakme back then decided to be the head sponsor and taking the advice of the late veteran designer Wendell Rodrick, it also had its finale show. Now inseparable from the fashion capital Mumbai, the initial first show took place in the capital, Delhi. The celebration happens to take place twice a year 'The Summer/Resort show' takes place in April while 'The Winter-Festive show' in August.

LFW SHOWCASE : WE ARE FAMILY BY MANISH ARORA show during the Lakme Fashion Week Summer Resort 2020 at Jio Gardens in Mumbai, India on February 10th, 2020. Photo: FS Images / Lakme Fashion Week / IMG Reliance

The first event in New Delhi went for about a week, 33 amazing designers of the country came together to showcase their best designs, the show was a hit with about 15,000 visitors. The first event was much appreciated and covered by national and international media both, it provided the Indian designers to showcase and spread their designs on the global platform as well.

Designers who made it big through the platform

On 23rd August 2000, at the Taj Palace Convention Centre, New Delhi, the designers who came up with their collection were Ranna Gill, Monisha Jaising, Ritu Kumar, Ashish Soni, Rohit Bal, Rajesh Pratap Singh, Tarun Tahiliani and others.

There are designers who through this platform made their name huge in the Fashion industry on national as well as international level. The brilliant names of the industry like  Aneeth Arora of Pero, Kallol Datta, Masaba Gupta, and Rahul Mishra, among many others. The emerging young designers who have enjoyed success just after their Gen Next launch include designers like Bodice by Ruchika Sachdeva, Amit Vijaya & Richard Pandav of Amrich, Ragini Ahuja of Ikai, Kunal Rawal and others.

Gen Next Programme, Lakme Fashion Week

There is something that connects designers like Aneeth Arora, Masaba Gupta, Nachiket Barve, and Rahul Mishra, and that is Gen-Next Programme, all these ace designers of the Indian fashion industry are alumni of the program.

Since the launch of the initiative in 2005, it has managed to develop into a mentorship program for up and coming designers, providing them a platform to showcase their brand along with getting insights about fashion business and how to build a commercially viable fashion brand.

The main purpose of the program is to discover new talent, in the past 28 seasons, around 266 designers have made their debut through it. For the designers LFW, Gen Next is the perfect opportunity to gain a good national and international audience of buyers. It is nothing less than a fashion school for new designers as they get the privilege to be mentored and groomed by leading designers for their launch show.

The Gen Next program is represented by INIFD, the official sponsor at LFW. Designers interested can always apply online on the official website of Lakme Fashion Week. One complete day of the Lakme Fashion Week is dedicated to the Gen Next program, this year's first day of the week was celebrated in the name of Gen Next Alumni's. 30 designers recreated their debut collection in a contemporary style and showcased it on the platform.

Gen Next bought some of the finest designers to the Indian fashion industry including Masaba Gupta, she made her debut as a Gen Next designer when she was only 19, through this platform she made her career bloom by 23 a mark for herself as a fashion designer.

Rahul Mishra is other such Gen Next star, his first-ever runway show was the Gen Next show for Lakme Fashion Week in 2006, when he was in his second year at NID. He presented his reversible Kerala handloom collection, and now the designer is well known and appreciated worldwide,  he got the attention most when he won the famed International Woolmark Prize in 2014, Mishra calls "accidental success as Gen Next designer " in 2016. Today he is a brand, his collection is showcased on the official calendar of Paris Fashion Week. His collection is also available through international fashion portals.

Fashion and sustainability

Lakme Fashion Week aims at preserving and celebrating Indian handlooms and textiles along with being a responsible citizen they look forward to creating sustainable fashion.

Sustainable fashion is making outfits, shoes, and accessories in environmentally and socio-economically sustainable manners, but including sustainable patterns of consumption. Each passing day and event the Indian designer are moving closer towards adopting sustainable fashion completely. Just like Gen Next and entire complete day in the event is celebrated in the name of nature by showcasing sustainable fashion. In Lakme Fashion Week 2020, the ace Indian designer Ritu Kumar set her foot in the world of sustainability and PETA launched its Vegan Fashion Campaign.

Indigenous fashion

Indigenous fashion means the garments and accessories that belong to a particular region or country. The Indian designers today aim at preserving the Indigenous fashion and they take the week as a platform to showcase it on the international level. With a touch of modernity, they give it a new look and make it best to wear in the 21st century.

Reliance X Lakme Fashion Week: Panel discussions & challenges




Lakme Fashion Week every season hosts a special panel discussion. The panel discussion is mainly talking about a specific topic within a selected group of panelists. The panel is hosted by some of the biggest names and the topic is mainly fashion and society oriented. This year the leading Bollywood actress Ananya Pandey was the guest and the event was hosted by Anaita Shroff Adajania. The actress on 12th February 2020, through the Lakme Fashion Week platform, launched the social responsibility initiative 'So Positive'.

Show stoppers' role at fashion shows

Celebrity showstoppers in a way run the show, designers design their collection but it's up to the showstopper how well they manage to carry it and grab the audience's attention.


It's a 50-50 partnership, designer's work is done with a gorgeous outfit but to get the outfit graceful attention is in the hands of the showstopper, they play a big role in making an outfit viral over social media. It's all about the celebrity at the end of the day, no matter how gorgeous the collection is but you see a pinch of disappointment in the crowd's eyes when a celebrity showstopper never shows. Bollywood celebrities to athletes, Lakme Fashion Week had all kinds of showstoppers in the past.

Conclusion


Initiatives such as Gen Next and Sustainable day are one of the reasons to make Lakme Fashion Week the premier launchpad for upcoming youth designers in the country today.