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The session on how brands and retailers can collaborate with new-age fashion influencers such as bloggers and fashion journalists at the ongoing India Fashion Forum (IFF)2013 at Bombay Exhibition Centre, Mumbai was one with a star-studded panel. On stage were Tarun Tahiliani, Fashion Designer; Nonita Kalra, Ex-Editor, Elle Magazine; Tarun Puri, MD, Nike; Shailesh Chaturvedi, CEO, Tommy Hilfiger; Vijendra Bharadwaj, Fashion Editor, GQ; and Manish Malhotra, Fashion Designer.
Moderated by Harmeet Bajaj, Founder Chairperson, Fashion Communication, NIFT, and Fashion Expert, the session discussed how brands and retailers can collaborate with new age fashion influencers to generate aspiration amongst the customers. Bajaj set the tone of the session, “Fashion media has come of age in the past 16 years. Today, media not only includes magazines but also newspapers, social media and bloggers."
Chaturvedi mentioned that the best way to communicate to the media is through fashion shows – either at the high street level or in B2B. Either way the concept is to tell the customer a story. How this communication results in editorial in magazines does not depend on the name of the brand. According to Kalra, it is about whether the product is in trend or not. As per Tarun Tahiliani, designers must collaborate with specialists in the manufacture and distribution sector to ensure that the products reach the target customer. He said: “Design will not have a wide appeal if it remains couture.” However, this trend of collaboration is just picking up in India, he added.