Lakmé Fashion Week has always been ahead of the curve and a strong supporter of fresh energy. Every year nearly 2500 students pass out of fashion schools, passionate about being designers – they have the zeal and the creativity, what they lack is proper guidance and platform to showcase their ability. Being one of the most prestigious fashion weeks in India – Lakmé Fashion Week is the best stage to display their thought-process and prowess, and it has done just that. We have got some amazing talent through this initiative of LFW – Nachiket Barve, Rahul Mishra, Masaba, Prashant Verma, Vineet Bahl and Rimzim Dadu bear testimony to this. In my capacity as the Board Member of LFW and CMD Kimaya, I have always attempted to make sure that Upcoming Talent gets their due. They are the future of Indian Fashion Industry, if we don’t nurture them now; we put our future at stake!

India has some amazing creativity and in addition we have a rich heritage of crafts and culture. Some of the applications for this season showed an intriguing use of dying Indian arts and others took a plunge at European styles in a very contemporary fashion. I have a lot of hope from the young designers, based on which, I have always promoted India as a strong contender of next Fashion Capital of the World.

This season’s Gen Next Designers are very promising! Young designers besides being creative also have a commercial bend of mind. They have reached the inflection point much before their predecessors. All seven of them had a diverse portfolio on offer, giving a breath of fresh air to Indian fashion. When you are young, your thought process is naïve, so you dare to experiment. Once established, you develop your style and think around in boundaries; hence it’s always a pleasure to see a Gen Next Designer’s creation on the ramp.