New Designers’ Fair brings European, US and Brazilian designers to Chennai
04/02/2016
India’s government has set the leather industry a target of increasing its annual turnover from around $12 billion now to $27 billion by 2020 and one of the initiatives CLE has come up with in response is a new Designers’ Fair, which took place in parallel with the 2016 India International Leather Fair in Chennai at the start of February.
The Designers’ Fair is the brainchild of Naresh Bhasin, whom the CLE appointed as the chairman of a new Design Task Force in 2015. He is the organisation’s regional chairman for western India and runs footwear manufacturer RAM Exports. This inaugural event attracted a total of 26 designers, all but two of them from outside India. They received support to travel to Chennai to show off some of their design ideas to Indian buyers.
Buyers paid a fee of $40 to attend, which Mr Bhasin said was a measure to make sure only serious finished product manufacturers came along; around 400 turned up. A step he took to make attractive designs available to these buyers was to engage Karen Giberson, president of the New York-based Accessories Council, as international programme director for North America, and Mallorca-based footwear producer and exporter Antonio Munar to carry out the same role in Europe.
Their work resulted in six leathergoods and apparel designers coming to the fair from the US, and ten designers from Italy, two from Spain and one from Belgium, representing European footwear. There were also three footwear designers from Brazil, two apparel and accessory designers from Russia and two designers from India.
“Creativity and innovation are the tools that will help this industry meet its target,” Mr Bhasin said at a press conference to introduce the Designers’ Fair. “Consumers want durability and brands want perishability to secure more sales. A design platform like this can create a win-win because design can compel consumers to buy more.” He said CLE will repeat the exercise in the months and years to come, with a follow-up fair in Agra in November next on the calendar.
Karen Giberson described the event as “kind of a reverse trade fair” and said it was something she had never seen before. “The response from the designers has been that they are very happy. Brands in the US have needs and they are looking for new places to source product. India is in a wonderful position to capture production that is leaving and will continue to leave other countries.”
For his part, Antonio Munar said: “The Indian government and CLE have given all possible support to bring designers to this fair and I think this is the first step in a very good future for the Indian industry.”
Image shows the panel at a press conference in Chennai on February 2 to introduce the 19th UITIC Congress and the new Designers’ Fair. Karen Giberson is first from the right. Antonio Munar is first from the left. Naresh Bhasin is second from the right.
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