17 September 2022, Mumbai:

Ritu Kumar’s Banjara collection is a nod to nomadic sensibility. It taps into intricate and intuitive travel reflexes such as delight, beauty, and cultural resonance. Banjara is a prolific understanding of indigenous fabrics and is art in fashion form.

The idea of the collection was born out of the years people were trapped in their houses and it evokes the need to want to move, to travel, to explore again. Statement dresses, easy separates, jackets and versatile pieces accented with intricate embroidery and patch-work make up Banjara. There is acuration of brocades, jamawars, silks, velvets and jacquards.

A palette of sandy browns, brick reds, moss greens and savannah yellows chronicles a decadent yet democratic narrative. From boardroom and bedroom to brunches and dinners, every outfit promises an AM-to-PM appeal, throw-on-and-go credibility, and is easy to accessorise in myriad ways.

Designer Ritu Kumar is always conscious and meticulous about research, and goes deep into a classical aesthetic. She begins at a strong aesthetic base. The range is about heritage textiles, indigenous crafts, signature patchwork and an eclectic mix of prints and patterns. A sun, fun and stun ideology has served as its design vocabulary, be it florals, playful Paisleys, unmatched colors or silhouettes that allow freedom of movement.

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15 September 2022, Mumbai:

Fashion Affair will be held in Mumbai, from October 7 to 9, 2022.

This business-to-customer shopping fair aims at bringing together a range of bridge-to-luxury brands for the festive season. The shopping fair will feature around 80 brands from across the country to showcase a wide range of festive wear styles for men, women, and children.

Product categories will include accessories, jewelry, footwear, handbags, gift items, handicrafts, homeware, and other festive goods. A curated selection of Lucknowi kurtas and palazzos will retail at the three-day event as well as an array of bridal wear. Though there will be a strong focus on weddings and bridal wear, casual wear will also feature. Both jewelry and clothing brands will be represented.

The event will also feature food stalls, entertainment, and a lifestyle section. A section of the event will also be dedicated to wedding fashion and event planning.

This is South Mumbai’s largest wedding, lifestyle, home décor, and luxury exhibition. Fashion Affair is designed to give small and medium brands from across India a platform from which to reach new customer demographics in Mumbai to expand their network and build their brand.

The event is also designed to offer metro shoppers a one-stop, multi-brand destination ahead of the autumn/ winter festive season. Fashion Affair was launched in 2015 and, since then, it has hosted several shopping editions annually.

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09 September 2022, Mumbai:

Sustainable fashion platform Shuffling Suitcaseshas successfully hosted 33 pop-ups across India over the last five years.

The pop-ups were a sort of R&D to understand the market and the demand. The platform was launched in 2017 and began by working with smaller brands that were more transparent and doing grassroots-level work.

The aim was to influence people in the way they shop. The platform started as an offline set-up, gradually moved online, and now has opened a brick-and-mortar store in Kolkata. The 1,200 sq. ft. multi-designer store features the latest collections from sustainable homegrown labels that range from apparel and shoes to jewelry and personal care brands.

The store houses ethical and eco-friendly brands like Amalgam, Jugni, Sole Stories, PreetKaur, Disguise Cosmetics, Arte-Alter, etc.

Shuffling Suitcases is a platform that curates slow fashion and builds a community focused on sustainable fashion. The brand has a tight curation process and looks for products that are handcrafted, ethical, organic, vegan, zero waste, cruelty-free, and locally sourced, among other criteria.

The process includes extensively questioning the brands, bringing in samples and checking for bleeding and other quality diameters, and visiting the manufacturing units, and speaking with the artisans. While curating brands matters, equally important is educating consumers.

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16 September 2022, Mumbai:

Flipkart expects to clock growth rates similar to last year’s festive season.

As shoppers move towards value-driven products, Flipkart will focus on expanding its price points, mainly targeting users in smaller cities and towns.

Despite a cautious outlook, the company will continue to invest big over the next month to push new categories, bring more sellers onto the platform, and bolster its supply chain and delivery fleet to meet the increase in demand. Flipkart will be entering a phase of capital conservation. The e-tailer has expanded into several new categories beyond product commerce.

E-commerce sales have picked up over the past few weeks in the run-up to the festive season sale after a relatively sluggish year when growth was muted. Compounding challenges for consumption-led businesses are inflationary pressures and macroeconomic uncertainty, which usually deters purchases, especially of high-value items such as smartphones and other electronics.

So far this year, the e-commerce sector has seen consumption growth moderating across categories, especially in segments considered to be discretionary. E-commerce shipments are expected to grow 20 percent annually in the ongoing financial year. This is a lower rate of annual growth compared to the last two financial years, especially fiscal ’21.

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15 September 2022, Mumbai:

Myntra’s Big Fashion Festival will be live from September 23, 2022.

This festive fashion dhamaka will witness the platform offer access to more than 1.5 million styles from leading domestic and international brands, offering products across categories like fashion, lifestyle, home, and beauty, and personal care. Brands have planned more than 100 new launches as part of the festive proposition.

Besides access to numerous value offers to shop for the entire family, this edition also brings, specially curated collections for customers seeking the trendy and the fresh. Myntra Insiders, members of its popular loyalty program, will also have the opportunity to avail of benefits like free shipping on all orders, Myntra gift cards, and vouchers from celebrated brands, among others.

The event presents access to unprecedented value offers by brands, along with ingenious customer engagement propositions like the curtain raiser deals and the deal o'clock. Customers can get coupons from brands in beauty, entertainment, food, travel, media, and music, among others.

Celebs like Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma and Ranbir Kapoor and Kiara Advani will play a pivotal role in connecting Myntra with millions of new and existing fashion-forward consumers. Myntra covers 19,000 pin codes across the country with 21,000 Kirana partners fulfilling over 80 percent of last-mile deliveries.

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 08 September 2022, Mumbai:

Couturier Tarun Tahiliani’s new collection aims at being timeless in sensibility, global in appeal, and rooted in craft.

The collection, dipped in hues of pastels, is a coming together and complex earthy tones of age-old patterns coupled with an artistic vision of the designer to form modern silhouettes.

From playful multicolored lehengas to long jackets over lehengas, and red sindoori saris to well-tailored men’s wear with the traditional magic of drapes, this collection speaks the vocabulary of the studio’s artistry in a technical triumph of fit and finesse. The seamless magic of the finest embroidery techniques such as chikankari, pichwai, kashida forms the strong craft pillars for this collection.

The constellation drapes and the tailored zardozi reminisce the confluence of east and west. Traditional silhouettes such as lehengas, achkans, jackets over lehengas, saris, and shararas infused with age-old craft techniques and coupled with the latest technology and the highest standards of fit and style perfectly capture Tarun Tahiliani's aesthetic, in an evolved avatar of here and now.

Tarun Tahiliani launched his eponymous brand in 1990 and currently has flagship stores in New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Kolkata. The brand is also available through multi-brand retailers in Nigeria, Japan, and the UK.

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15 September 2022, Mumbai:

Bollywood celebrity Vaani Kapoor stars in Kalki’s media campaign.

She wears outfits including a lemon yellow sari and a cream sleeveless blouse and an embellished yellow kurta. The collection mixes classic heritage opulence with a modern, relaxed touch, designed for everything from friendly gatherings to weddings and pujas. Notable looks include floral, glitter trim saris, and watercolor style pastel kurtas, among others.

Kalki is a women’s traditional wear brand. Kalki retails from its flagship stores in Mumbai and New Delhi as well as its dedicated e-commerce store. Kalki is an ethnic wear brand that houses a range of bridal, couture, and prêt collection as well as accessories, footwear, and jewelry. The brand opened its largest store to date in New Delhi in August 2022 which includes a dedicated bridal area.

Kalki launched in Mumbai in 2007 and works with a team of 500 artisans to produce its womenswear designs. The brand has a customer base in India as well as in countries including the US, UK, Canada, and Australia, among others. The brand also recently partnered with celebrity stylist Tanya Ghavri for an interactive styling masterclass. Ghavri shared tips with brides-to-be on how to style their bridal attire using Kalkilehengas as examples.

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