ByIANSlife Features

September 10, 2019 (IANSlife) As a veteran of art, theatre and fashion, Choreographer and show director Vidyun Singh has had an expansive overview of these three worlds. She started off as a model in the 80s, switched to choreography and has since been flitting between art, theatre, cinema and fashion. Which perhaps explains her scathing critiques on several occasions of the Indian fashion industry and its growing obsession to overwhelm its customers through runway drama. 
Singh is known for speaking her mind. She insists that all that has changed in the industry over the past decades, is the production value of the fashion shows. “When we started Lakme Fashion Week some 20 years ago, the brief used to be clear, an easy change or two to the runway. It could be as simple as the name at the back or adding one easy element to the runway or a few props. It was hard to do more than that in the short turn around time. But that has all changed, and now the entire look and set of the show is completely different,” she says. 
Today a runway is nothing short of a movie set. Gone is the idea of minimal change. 
“Designers and set producers now are thinking out-of-the-box and reinventing ways to achieve quick assembly. They create mock ups and sets offsite, which are assembled at the show in no time at all. So the challenge of turnaround has been countered by the production teams,” says Singh, who is all set to visit Paris Fashion Week soon .

But while the grandeur and scale of shows might create an impact on the audience and designers, it is ultimately to their disadvantage, because it blurs the difference between the set and the runway of a couture or a pret show. 

“Everyone now is trying to ‘out-amaze’ the other. So it has become more about the sets and shows, than the clothes. In the corridors, you can hear people talking about the show, but seldom do you hear them discuss the clothes. And that’s not the best thing if you’re a designer whose end aim is to sell the clothes,” says Singh.  

So when the presentation has overpowered the product, how does a designer retain balance? “When it comes to couture shows one has the time and money for ostentatious presentations. But whether you have the means or not for pret shows, it's better to keep it simple so that you don’t take away the attention from the clothes.  There’s a reason why the numbers of buyers are dwindling, they are not interested in the razzmatazz. They would rather buy online, digital e-brochures and look books are available to all,” she emphasises.

As a matter of fact, “fashion fatigue” is plaguing the industry big time. Buyers and stores don’t want more exposure and prefer working behind the scenes. And consumers have already seen so much melodrama that there is no excitement left. 

But Singh is still hopeful. “Choreographers, professionals, stylists, makeup artists, models have all swung out of spectacle mode and are working in a much more contemporary and efficient fashion,” she insists. Let’s hope the designers take note of that and turn their focus on inner layers rather than the outer.  

(This article is a website exclusive and cannot be reproduced without permission of IANSlife)

IANSlife can be contacted at ianslife@ians.in

Editing by Ritu Pandey and N. Lothungbeni Humtsoe