Apparel Online India Magazine April 1st Issue 2019 | Page 35

FASHION BUSINESS Raju Agarwal of Mangalam Exports had similar views as he stated, “Every buyer is different when it comes to prints – some go for skin prints, commonly known as animal prints, some go for florals while others opt for chain and scarf prints. The trends that have been consistent since the past several seasons are florals and animal prints, with the latter regaining its popularity rapidly for the coming seasons. We do all of these in polyesters and its blends.” with stripes and chain prints. We even offer the lively animal motifs through different techniques – we use sequins to highlight cheetah patterns, flock print over sheer fabrics for leopard prints and we also offer them in several unconventional fabrics, such as mesh jacquards and pleated fabrics. The buyers are responding well to the trend, despite the fact that it was fading at the end of 2018.” Multitude of techniques, fabrics and value additions Manufacturers are also exploring different techniques other than printing in order to normalise the saturation of animal print garments. One such export house is Jimmy Mode International. Bhavna Singh, Sr. Merchandiser for the company shed further light on the kind of variations they are providing now by asserting, “We have several prints that are in trend right now – animal prints, scarf prints and chain prints. We want to offer the consumer something new, which is why we juxtapose different prints together. For our Spring/Summer 2020 collection, we mixed animal prints Cheetah patterns in sequins by Jimmy Mode International Animal prints on runways for Fall/Winter 2019 When it comes to value addition, India is known for its embroidery prowess. Arnav Poddar from Cheer Sagar talked about how they include these patterns in their embroidery-heavy offering. He averred,“We specialise in embroideries, coupled with embellishments. Yet we found a way to explore animal motifs through our prints’ collections as they are selling well with both kinds of customers – the ones looking for summer clothing and the ones more inclined towards winterwear. We are majorly doing polyester blends for this print collection as they are performing the best – fabrics like American poly-crepes, poly-dobbys. For finer and dressier silhouettes such as occasionwear dresses, we are using variations of viscose as well. Other silhouettes that are • Animal print is a Spring/Summer 2019 trend and has gone up by 50 per cent since S/S ’18, with brands such as Burberry, Gucci and Calvin Klein leading the way. • Animal prints constituted the major chunk of product sell-outs in the mass market of US and UK for Fall 2018. • The most common motifs were leopard, cheetah and snake patterns out of the mix as per the market trends. • Manufacturers are producing animal patterns in various ways, such as sequins, embroidery, or flock printing; in fabrics such as polyester blends, viscose blends or in unconventional fabrics like mesh jacquard and pleats. Animal prints by embroidery expert Cheer Sagar www.apparelresources.com | APRIL 1-15, 2019 | Apparel Online India 35