Slowdown and The White Swan Principle in Fashion
Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008By Hindol Sengupta
I know what you are saying - why do we need so many fashion weeks? And who cares so much about clothes anyway other than wannabe socialites?
And anyway, shouldn’t all of us be thinking of our jobs rather than fashion?
So when Sumeet asked me write a blog for the Delhi Fashion Week, I thought let me look what happens to the business of style at a time of slowdown. Essentially, in the world of business we define commodities as essential and non-essential commodities.
Fashion, luxury and all its other accompanying elements falls under non-essential commodities. One would think that a time when everyone is tightening their wallets, non-essential commodities, especially fashion and luxury would be the hardest hit. As it so happens, that it not quite true.
For instance, if you look at the history of luxury, the only time it has really been affected is during the Wars and that too due to the non-availability of materials, not slowing demand.
What happens in the world of luxury and high fashion is that demand at the highest level is fairly inelastic. Remember somewhere, someone, even in a bear market or recession whatever you want to term it, is making money, and that often goes into luxury.
As the head of Sothebys recently said - earlier they used to hunt down the hedge funds guys, now its the oil-men, next might be the commodity growers (as opposed to traders).
Now where does India fit in in all this? Can there be an Indian paradigm of luxury and fashion?
While researching for my new book, Ramp Up, on the business of fashion, I thought of a story I had read long ago, a story about the French king Louis XIV who really gave France the idea of luxury. The Sun King defined everything chic that we now associate with the French.
Never before had excess, elegance, refinement and decadence got the kind of display that it got during his reign (1660 to 1715).
One of the Sun King’s most talked about decisions during this time was a plan to beautify Paris using scores of very expensive imported white swans.
A colony was created on a tiny island opposite the Cours-la-Reine promenade and swans put there for visitors to gape at even as they took in the chic of the promenade. This, along with high fashion, suave cafes and elite hair stylists, would add to the appeal of the French capital as the center of the world of elegance and luxury.
Some critics objected that the polluted waters of the Seine flowing through a clogged city were just the place where swans should not be.
Louis XIV, of course, was undaunted and years later the swans (some died but many survived) became that one extra dash of panache to what had already become the style capital of the world.
There is a great lesson for Indian fashion in this story. It is the lesson of how to create value during adversity.
I believe the future lies in India creating unique value propositions using our skill set, heritage and intellectual capital.
We do not, should not, attempt to play the mass manufacturing game like China. We do not want to be the Underwear Capital of the world.
In a time of slowdown, we can provide the highest quality and charge a premium price which will still be a value for money product compared to Western price points.
That is our unique contribution and of value-add, our White Swan as it were, and that will see us through a slowdown.
(Hindol Sengupta is the author of India’s first book on the fashion industry, Indian Fashion, Pearson PLC ‘05. His new book Ramp Up - The Business of Indian Fashion is out this month.)