Celebrates the new Indian designers—from ready-to-wear and haute couture to bridal and menswear—currently transforming the international fashion scene India is a rising star in the world of fashion. Drawing on an inimitable creative inheritance stretching back thousands of years, the country’s designers are rapidly securing India’s place in the future of fashion. Larger cities like Delhi and Mumbai, home to Lakmé Fashion Week and already destinations for the fashion elite, are no longer the sole players, as Pune and Bangalore grow increasingly influential. Across India, young designers are acting on the opportunities provided by the increasing influence of the nation’s fashion shows and the expanding market for boutiques and online retail. This timely first survey of Indian fashion celebrates the achievements of such young designers as Rahul Mishra, Aneeth Arora, and Ruchika Sachdeva, as well as the visually vibrant designs of established superstars including Manish Aurora, Abu Jani, Sandeep Khosla, and others. Illuminating profiles of the designers are interwoven with interviews conducted by the author especially for this book. Lush illustrations of all the hottest looks range from luxury bridal and ethnic formal wear to contemporary interpretations of the sari. Descriptions of the various techniques and materials employed reveal the skill behind each incredible garment, from traditional crafts like handloom weaving, color-resist dyed silk, intricate embroidery and appliqué, to cutting-edge fabrication and construction methods.

Fashion forecasters combine the views emerging about color and fabric from the early yarn and fabric trade shows with their socio-economic and cultural analysis. Major trends in lifestyles, attitude and culture in particular music, sport, cinema and television are used to predict changing consumer demands. Fashion forecasting involves the following activities such as studying market conditions, noting the life style of the people, researching sales statistics, evaluating popular designer collections, surveying fashion publications, observing street fashions etc.

Carefully researched collection of 44 ready-to-color illustrations spotlights more than five centuries of fashions from India's colorful past, among them the sari, a long, gracefully draped gown worn by women; full, trousers, worn by both sexes; jodphurs — trousers westernized into riding breeches; as well as Pashmina shawls, turbans, and other accessories.

Between 2000-2008 India's economic and political ascendancy were charted in the worlds press. This period of dynamism ushered in an increased sense of confidence, aspiration and pride in being Indian. This book is about the response of the design community to India's changing environment. It focuses on fashion, graphic and interior design as metaphors of the complex networks that constitute globalisation within key metropolitan centres of India. Examined within the context of their production and consumption, and through their economic, social, political and cultural underpinnings, a picture emerges which conveys how designers grapple with issues of identity and globalisation, nationhood and modernity, ethics and commerce.

A coherent and insightful view of the growing Global Luxury & Fashion Brands market in India, India by Design - The Pursuit of Luxury and Fashion unveils this culturally complex and dynamic market via a series of interviews with global Luxury and Fashion Experts. India has more consumers for luxury goods than the adult population of several countries. For international luxury brands, India is no longer a testing ground, but a lucrative market. India By Design looks at India as more than just an emerging luxury market with high growth potential, but scrutinizes it as a country rediscovering its luxury heritage and bringing it into the present and future in a uniquely Indian way. The authors' sense of detail balanced with their ability to see the big picture bring sense to the kaleidoscope of cultures, businesses and technology which is India today.

A dazzling showcase of traditional Indian heritage craft, completely revitalized and reimagined for today's fashion landscape. For the past thirty years, Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla have made their mark on the fashion industry by bringing the best of traditional Indian crafts to the world of high fashion: traveling to remote regions, identifying age-old local arts, and executing them to a couture standard in their stunning collections. Their unique designs encompass details such as Indian mirrorwork, chikan and zardozi embroidery, and Swarovski crystals. Originally published as part of a two-volume set and now available as a stand-alone volume focusing on fashion, this celebratory publication showcases their exuberant talents. On display are dozens of the duo’s classically elegant, feminine designs, including specially photographed close-ups of exquisitely crafted details.

This book is the first book-length study to explore the sartorial politics of identity in the literature of the South Asian diaspora in Britain. Using fashion and dress as the main focus of analysis, and linking them with a myriad of identity concerns, the book takes the reader on a journey from the eighteenth century to the new millennium, from early travel account by South Asian writers to contemporary British-Asian fictions. Besides sartorial readings of other key authors and texts, the book provides an in-depth exploration of Kamala Markandaya’s The Nowhere Man (1972), Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia (1990), Meera Syal’s Life Isn’t All Ha Ha Hee Hee (1999) and Monica Ali’s Brick Lane (2003).This work examines what an analysis of dress contributes to the interpretation of the featured texts, their contexts and identity politics, but it also considers what literature has added to past and present discussions on the South Asian dressed body in Br itain. Endowed with an interdisciplinary emphasis, the book is of interest to students and academics in a variety of fields, including literary criticism, socio-cultural studies and fashion theory.