Apparel Online India Magazine June 1st Issue 2018 | Page 25

TEX-FILE
LIVA Fluid Fashion holds ‘Designer Meet’ to
connect product developers with new suppliers
The industry is constantly in need of inspirations to create collections, and fabric is an important input for product development today.
Keeping its promise to the industry to provide regular collections throughout the year, LIVA Fluid Fashion, a subsidiary of Aditya Birla
Group, recently held a ‘Designer Meet’ at its LIVA Accredited Partner Forum (LAPF) Studio to exhibit the company’s latest textile collection.
L
ocated in one of the world’s largest
garment clusters in Noida (UP),
where over 650 garment manufacturers
are in close vicinity, the studio is one
of a kind projects in India. Since its
inception last year, the studio has been
an attraction for garment manufacturers
searching for new fabrics. The products
on display at the exhibition ranged from
fabrics – woven (greige, solid or printed)
and circular/flat knitted to 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 like WGSN’s trend
forecast and inputs from trade shows 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. A focus on sustainability and ‘going
back to basics’ exemplified how fabrics
under Birla Cellulose, which are produced
from wood pulp (a natural renewable
source) sit well with the overall direction of
the fashion industry.
The event was attended by product
development teams from buying offices,
domestic retailers (like Aurelia, Krishna
Beads Industries, 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. Isha
Jain, Senior Designer, ITX Services, whose
main account is fast-fashion brand Bershka,
disclosed that while they are not working
directly with LIVA, the partner forum “has
been very resourceful in terms of developing
new suppliers for us, looking at more fabrics
and now that we are venturing towards the
organic style and looking for such fabrics…
LIVA has been a great support in even just
educating us and opening up a social space
for new growth avenues.” Lalit Thukral, Executive Member of
AEPC (sponsored by the Govt. of India,
Ministry of Textiles) who helped ideate
this studio, told the Apparel Online team,
“With LAPF’s support, a very fruitful
relationship cycle has progressed in
Noida in the supply chain. I have seen
people who began a business of Rs. 5 lakh
with LIVA, and are now placing orders
worth Rs. 55 lakh.”
Apart from hosting over 1,000 varieties in
Viscose, Modal and Excel, helping creatives
in design development, the studio enables
technical support via a team of textile
scientists and removes the middlemen
between its partner vendors and buyers.
Over the time, the studio has become an
important sourcing office for members of
various associations, like Apparel Export
Promotion Council (AEPC), Apparel
Exporters & Manufacturers’ Association and
Indian Industries Association, among others. While not everyone in attendance at the event
was buying LIVA’s famously fluid fabrics,
the LAPF studio seems to be a success,
with plans to open a space in New York
and other international fashion hubs soon.
The event saw nearly 30 companies attend
the (Designer) meeting and the response
for both the presentation and fabrics was
very positive. Going beyond footfall, many
customers who came placed orders for bigger
yardages as all their preliminary queries
were answered then and there.
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 10-15 rupees in fabric can give him a
competitive edge over other manufacturing
hubs like Bangladesh, Vietnam, etc.
The ‘Designer Meet’ at LIVA Accredited Partner Forum (LAPF) Studio in Noida, India attracted a lot of attention from product development teams from buying offices, domestic retailers and brands
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