LIVA Fluid Fashion, a subsidiary of Aditya Birla Group, recently held a ‘Designer Meet’ at its LIVA Accredited Parner Forum (LAPF) Studio, to exhibit the company’s latest textile collection.
Located in one of the world’s largest garment clusters at Noida (UP), where over 650 garment manufacturers are in close vicinity, the Studio is a one-of-its-kind project in India. The fabrics on display range from Woven (greige, solid or printed), circular/flat knitted, yarns (regular or novelty yarns like slub, nep, grindle, space dyed, etc.) from over 70 LAPF partner vendors as well as LIVA’s own seasonal collection.
The event’s main crowd-pulling factor was a presentation of upcoming trends for the Spring 2019 collection, prepared by the ABFRL creative team. Taking into account everything from WGSN’s trend forecast and inputs from tradeshows like Premiere Vision, the team declared their overall theme as ‘Re-Discover, Re-Connect, Re-Create’. The team walked the attendees through smaller sub-themes and the corresponding fabrics to go along with those stories.
Markedly, the event was attended by product development teams from buying houses, domestic retailers (like Aurelia, Krishna Beads Industries and Elini) as well as local manufacturers of brands like Tom Tailor, Promod, Inditex-owned Bershka who perused through the latest and old fabric collections on display and directed their queries to LAPF’s fabric managers right away.
The event hosted almost 30 companies and approximately 50+ representatives attended the [Designer] meeting and as per the store team, the response for both the presentation and fabrics was very positive. Visitors interacted with the LAPF team on their queries and issues and explored a plethora of materials on display.
At the event, the focus on ‘sustainability’ and ‘going back to basics’ exemplified how fabrics under Birla cellulose, produced from wood pulp, are a natural renewable resource to the fashion industry and defined the future of eco-fashion.
Isha Jain, Senior Designer, ITX Services, whose main account is the fast-fashion brand Bershka, disclosed that while they are not working directly with LIVA, however, the partner forum has been very resourceful in developing new suppliers for them. “Now that the entity is venturing into offering more ‘organic’ style(s) and has started searching for such ‘eco-friendly’ fabrics, LIVA stands as a great support in not just educating us but also in opening up a social space for new growth avenues,” she averred.
Apart from hosting over 1,000 varieties Viscose, Modal and Excel, helping creatives in design development, the LAPF Studio enables technical support via a team of textile scientists and cuts the middlemen between its partner vendors and buyers.
Over time, the space has become an important sourcing destination for the likes of Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC), Apparel Exporters & Manufacturers’ Association and Indian Industries Association, among others.
Lalit Thukral, Executive Member of AEPC (Sponsored by the Govt. of India, Ministry of Textiles), who helped ideate this Studio, told Apparel Resources, “With LAPF’s support, a very fruitful relationship cycle has progressed in Noida in the supply chain. I have seen people who began with a business of 5 lakhs from LIVA, now placing orders worth 55 lakhs.”
Thukral further added that while the market conditions are not very positive right now, transparency in the supply could project a virtuous future for the garmenting world. In a market where people lose business for as less as 5-10 cents, helping an exporter save just Rs. 10-15 in fabric can give him a competitive edge over other players in manufacturing hubs like Bangladesh, Vietnam, etc.
Further, the LAPF Studio has already opened a space in New York with plans of opening in other international and domestic fashion hubs soon.