Source: GettyImages – Getty Images Entertainment – Kristy Sparow
Hi all,
Modernized Indian design wrapped into psychedelic colors…For today’s success story, I wanted to share with you the interview of a fashion designer I really love: Manish Arora. In this video by the Indian Design Forum, the designer tells us about his vision and the principles that got him propelled onto the Parisian fashion scene.
I think this video is great for all the fashion designers, especially the ones coming from emerging countries and who want to make it globally.
Those are the main ideas I could pinpoint out of the video:
- Organization skills. At the time this video was made, Manish Arora still worked as a creative director of Paco Rabanne and led his own brand at the same time. The collaboration with two separate teams in two different places required a lot of organization.
- Discipline. He likes being on time and planning his schedules.
- Customers’ happiness as a motivation. He designs to bring happiness on people’s face, whichever their country of origin.
- Emotions. Fashion is not only about clothes. It’s about the whole feeling. When you make a fashion show, you have to make people feel emotions. And he likes giving an Indian feeling to the ones he creates through his designs.
- Less star attitude, more work. He reminds us that being a fashion designer is less about the fame: it’s a job like any other.
- Finding the right balance. Firstly, for his brand to last, he needs to manage to find the right balance between doing what he believes in and making the customer happy. Secondly, he also needs to find the balance between selling and still keeping the spirit of the House. Mentioning the example of Paco Rabanne, his challenge at that time was to maintain the Paco Rabanne concept and yet making it wearable enough to sell, which implied looking for solutions to turn metal into fabric.
- Applying a proper formula to modernizing Indian design. Through his vision, he wants to take India to the Western world. Indeed, he believes the world doesn’t necessarily need another Western designer. So he uses Indian craftsmanship, especially Indian embroidery, which is one of the best worldwide, adapting the craftsmanship in a new way.
- Be faithful to your brand identity. To make it internationally, it is important to find your own style. It’s not important if people accept you or not. Have your own identity and stick to it. Believe in you and go on and on until people believe in you.
Enjoy!
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