It’s approximately been six months since this graduate in fashion design from Namuna College of Fashion Technology (NCFT) initiated ‘ekadesma’ a natural fabric clothing store. The response, in this short time for her has been “okay.”[break]
“As a co-owner and designer at ekadesma, I interact with my customers and learn of their likes and dislikes which I further incorporate in my designs,” she says. Similar to Alpaza, there are a lot of youngsters around the capital city who have opened their clothing store or boutique. This trend is on a never before seen surge because of the number of students taking up courses on fashion design and fashion technology owing to the rising number of institutes offering such courses.
It is ironic however that these fashion students are yet to create a string market for themselves especially because of the Chinese and Thai readymade wear that occupy most of bazaar share in the clothing business. Although they are a few known faces who are regular customers at these local boutiques, the demand for custom made clothes among the general public is far from high.
“There are two aspects to this,” observes Sanish Shrestha, coordinator at NCFT, “Firstly it’s the lack of fashion awareness and, second, the misconception that designer clothing is unaffordable.” Alongside the drawbacks, he also, sees a change in the picture within a few years. The regular fashion shows that are being held in and around the capital city is helping create awareness among the local buyers, he says. Also, he points out, the need to manufacture more local fabrics so the young creative heads, in the field, will not have to bring in material from foreign countries paying higher prices.
Drishti Adhikari Counselor at IEC School of Art & Fashion, Putalisadak agrees with Sanish in the awareness factor. “Its only been a few years since we began having regular fashion shows, I think its too early to judge,” she claims adding “our students are very creative but their creativity has been limited to the classrooms with not much being showcased to the buyers.” IEC which has passed out its 14th batch of students has more than 110 boutiques run by their graduates.
The courses these fashion institutes offer have in their curriculum elements of history of costume and fashion, illustration and trend analysis to fashion merchandising and entrepreneurship. Majority of the students however, seem to have made little use of their classes as the local customers are far from pleased.
Bijaya Gauchan, who is ‘very much into fashion and stylish clothes’ and watches all the fashion shows in the local arena begs to differ. “I watch the fashion shows on TV and see the pictures in the newspapers and all I can say about the clothes our fashion students display are - I would never wear any of them.” Bijaya does her casual wear shopping from various stores around town which offer Chinese and Bangkok made clothes and for the formal and traditional clothes she prefers India.
Suchita Sachi, coordinator of the Fashion Design Faculty at Lord Buddha Education Foundation (LBEF) puts in her thoughts. She says people should not judge a designer on the basis of the clothes displayed during these fashion carnivals. “More often than not students are working on a particular theme which limits them from making wearable clothes; you need to carry out a lot of inspection before judging anyone,” she justifies.
Reshma Tuladhar like Bijaya doesn’t trust Nepali designers and therefore chose the shops in the lanes of Hazratganj and Aminabad in Lucknow to purchase sarees for her sisters wedding this year. “The sarees in the boutiques here all bought from India, the so called designers only add a few pieces of embellishments and double the price,” she opines.
The fact that although there are door to door boutiques in the Kupodole area but only a few have regular customers stands as a proof. The need for lesser manpower and higher profit seems to be the core reason behind our local designers taking the shortcut to the lanes of Delhi and Lucknow in search for sarees and other traditional clothes.
Alpaza agrees that many in her business take this easy way out. She observes the demand of the customers for sarees seen in Indian television dramas which have a perfect finishing as one of the reasons. “I think if we as designers pushed our creative limits we could make better designs locally,” adding “also a copyright law on design would help.”
Nisha Shrestha a fashion enthusiast, studying fashion studies after the completion of her Executive MBA says she ‘loves fashion’ and is positive of the future of fashion retail in the capital. “Designers will be more innovative and the consumers more appreciative.’ Aiming at opening her own fashion store after her graduation she thinks the need to be creative is important. “Hard work and creativity always pay,” she signs off.
Related story
Fashion events in Asia
