Fashion designers are in Trend

 Tarun Tahiliani to JJ Valaya, top fashion designers diversify in style

If you thought top fashion designers are head deep into designing and displaying their latest couture and pret collections, check this out: Raghvendra Rathore recently redesigned a vintage 1947 Chevrolet, Tarun Tahliani and JJ Valaya are into designing hotels and homes, Rohit Bal and Ashima-Leena duo plan to sell designer furnitures,Suneet Varma has worked with brands such as Swarovskiand BMW.... Call it emulating the West or natural progression, big names of the Indian fashion industry are diversifying into different segments to find new channels for creative expression as well as to scale up their business.

They are buoyed a growing class of young, affluent consumers and an increasingly aspiring middle class willing to splurge on personalised products and exceptional experiences from customised cars and designer jewellery to royal holidays and expansive weddings.

"There is a ready market for established designers to in several categories. It would be silly if they do not use the opportunity," says Sabyasachi Mukherjee, whose sarees are a rage among women. He is now designing a luxury, cinema-inspired suite for the Taj Hotel at Buckingham Street in London. He says several realtors have approached him to do homes.

Raghvendra Rathore, known for his signature bandhgalas and achkans, too is busy broadening his range of products. "From a fashion company, we have become a design company," says Rathore who recently redesigned exterior and the suspension system of a classic 1947 Chevrolet for a client and provided designer inputs for a few luxury hotels in Rajasthan.

Market experts say there is a large market potential that is waiting to be tapped.

"There is a certain signature that a designer has created which can be used to create other products and services as well," says Saloni Nangia, president at management consulting firm Technopak.

For instance, in the home segment, Italian designer Giorgio Armani's interior design studio Armani Casa is working with Lodha Developers to launch luxury homes in Mumbai.

Experts say that given the small size of Indian designers market at the moment, there is a need for them to explore new avenues.

"There are not more than 20 designers in India with annual sales of Rs 10 crore at present," says Sunil Sethi, president of Fashion Design Council of India, the industry's apex organisation. Only a few designers in the country have been able to cross the Rs 50 crore turnover mark so far, he says.

Vijay Singh, MD of Fashion One International, says the fashion industry is estimated at around Rs 800 crore and there is a dire need for scaling up. "Diversification is not only brand extension, but it also makes commercial sense," he says. Fashion One has partnered Delhi-based JJ Valaya to design luxury weddings.

Valaya has also tied up with 2-3 real estate developers to design ultra premium luxury homes.

Such expansion drives are already getting the attention of PE firms and venture capitalists.

Designer Duo Ashima and Leena, for example, will get PE funding for expansion. They plan to set up a lifestyle store that will sell home furnishings, crockery, and collectibles, and open an education institute.

Private equity firm L Capital, meanwhile, is in talks with designers to create an Indian luxury house loosely resembling its parent LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the world's biggest maker of luxury goods. The firm is close to signing up with Rohit Bal and Sabyasachi Mukherjee along with multi-designer retailer Evoluzione.

Fashion designers' expansion drive is not limited to designer stuff. Rocky S has turned a film producer. Muzzafar Ali too is working on a few Bollywood projects.