Fashion week! What's that?

One of the iDiva readers posted a very interesting comment on a story titled - Sneak peek into LFW. The comment read: What is a fashion week? And does it have any significance?

Let's try and put things into perspective. A fashion week is like an auto expo - car lovers flock to figure what is the latest to hit the automobile industry, car companies compete to display the most technologically advanced and best designed cars, car collectors and discerning buyers pick the best that is on offer. And, sometimes (well most of the time) celebrities are invited to attend to up the glam quotient and generate the much needed publicity.

At the end of the day an auto expo is a trade event that promotes business just like a fashion week. In a fashion week, which lasts for five days in India, fashion designers showcase the best clothes that they create; buyers and fashion boutiques from all over the world pick the best designs, but more importantly fashion week is 'THE' platform for publicity (and more often than not it's free).

Publicity, what publicity?

HDIL, a construction and real estate company with no connection to fashion whatsoever is the main sponsor of a couture week in Mumbai. Then there are co-sponsors like liquor brands, cosmetic brands, publications, and more that jump into the band wagon for making money and free 'publicity' (courtesy: media frenzy due to celeb presence).

Designers need to pay a fee to participate in fashion weeks and occasionally the fee is as high Rs 8 lakhs! Prominent designers would request their Bollywood celebrity clientele to walk the ramp as 'showstoppers'(for free of course). But if the celebrity or the designer is not very well known but they feel the need to generate 'publicity', the designer would pay the celeb to walk the ramp.

At a recently held workshop by Lakme Fashion Week called, 'From Sketchpad to Closet' designer Anuj Sharma shared an interesting insight, "I remember asking Narendra Kumar after a show why he made a celebrity walk the ramp? He whispered - 'It works'."

There are talents like Sabyasachi, Rajesh Pratap Singh, Anand Kabra, Rahul Mishra, Varun Sardanha and Manish Arora who do not need a celebrity on the ramp for 'publicity'. Their clothes do the magic!

So what's the big deal about fashion?

Would you give an arm away to watch your favourite band perform, or pose with the wax model of your favourite celebrity at Madame Tussaud's? Or, would you go to Louvre museum in Paris and not inquire about the Leonardo Da Vinci's Monalisa.

Similarly, fashion lovers worship style. The whole process of taking fabric, cutting it, stitching it, embellishing it and wearing it is an art. For beginners, take some fabric and work on a bikini and gift it to your best friend. Because it is hand made it becomes priceless and precious. Ditto for designer wear!

Not many can do it and everybody wears it differently! There is a reason Coco Chanel, reigned Paris fashion from 1920s-40s, is worshipped - she freed women from their corsets, her clothes were for women who actively earned their money, her designs embodied the women's liberation movement that found its foothold in early twentieth century. That's why you would hear people say that fashion and clothes reflect social and cultural changes.

On a more personal note, imagine you had the flair for poetry like Lennon or a voice like Whitney Houston; wouldn't you want to flaunt them? How many times have we fantasised ourselves performing like our favourite actor and emulating them a million times in front of the mirror?

On the same lines, you need the 'attitude' to wear clothes your way. Why else do women gasp at Lady Gaga's sartorial audacity making her a household name?

But, who can afford 'designer clothes'

The answer is not too many people! Designer clothes belong to the luxury segment.

It's like not too many people can afford a MF Hussain painting but fakes are always available. Similarly, a Tarun Tahiliani wedding lehenga is beyond the reach of the masses but you can always copy the design, courtesy your tailor.

But for the elite and seekers of luxury, brands and designer are a collector's delight.