‘Fashion market is back to pre-pandemic era’ | Fashion Trends

With the festival season set-in, Diwali festivities and wedding season ahead, there is a lot of positivity in the market. Fuelled with confidence and excitement amongst buyers, fashion designers, apparel stores, wholesalers and retailers feel that the season this year may touch the heights of pre-pandemic era after a low-key sale in the last two years.

“We hope to be on the mending route this season. After back-to-back pandemic waves this is for the first time that there is so much confidence in the market. Next 15 days will decide if we are able to match or surpass the business we have done before Coronavirus played havoc in our lives,” tells Naresh Motiani, senior member of Lucknow Ganeshganj Merchant Association.

The whole seller adds budgets have surely gone down. “We can’t deny the fact that budgets have been squeezed so we are catering the mid-range segments, have reduced margins and have asked companies to pass on more benefits and gifts which we can offer to our customers. Good news is for festival and wedding wear people are preferring offline traders over online portals,” adds Motiani.

Upbeat with the current trend, fashion designer Pallavi Madeshia Yadav shares that the summer wedding business was a bit low but now things are looking up. “Looking at the trend, we too are on expansion mode and coming up with store of Polka Dots Couture in a plush mall. Buyers are spending on wedding fashion and budgets too have improved from what we witnessed in the last two years. I won’t say that sales are at par with pre-pandemic time but volumes surely have gone up,” says the young designer.

The on-going Muslim wedding season as well as upcoming mega Hindu wedding period will surely bring back the highs of 2019, feels fashion designer Arshi Jamal.

“People are now splurging like they used to. Wedding has started getting bigger and buyers are going for complete dressing line-up for pre-marriage functions, the trend is back with a bang which was curtailed due to restrictions and Covid scare. The only difference is that budget are still low. Hindu weddings will start next month but we are having a good season of Muslim wedding which will continue till February,” tells Jamal.

Designer Sagarika Mehrotra feels this is perfect time to make inroads in the market. “I was watching and preparing myself and finally I launched my exclusive store Tilsim few months back and we may have a great wedding and festival season ahead. There is a clear division between clients who are looking for exclusive designer stuff irrespective of pricing but masses surely have constrained budgets. So, we have created shararas, suits, lehengas, gowns, saris and co-ord sets which have lesser handicraft work instead have designer prints which give a very rich look. This will help sale in low budget segment,” she says and adds that a lot of customisation is happening as per the budget.

With big fat weddings around the corner the market players are hoping to end the season on a high note.