Did you see the newspaper this
morning? No, I’m not talking about Arvind Kejriwal or Robert Vadera. Drop the
main paper and move to the supplement. It’s Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week!
One of the best Fashion Weeks in India, Wills India Fashion Week takes the cake
every time - everything about it is spectacular, grand, and exemplary. The
extravaganza is always star studded – celebrities, designers, stylists, models
and everyone you can think of. So you get the drift why this is such a big deal
for any designer. Earning a place there, displaying your collection and having
a celebrity walk the ramp for you is the best thing that can happen to you. Or
not.
Now that so much is being talked about the Wills Lifestyle
India Fashion Week, let’s get into the PR angle. Katrina Kaif or Shahrukh Khan walking on the
ramp in your clothes or Ranbir Kapoor as a showstopper for your event can
effectively make you a brand, a name people want to be associated with, a
designer magazines want to feature on the front page probably. But what next?
He walked on the ramp for you, it worked very well but you still need to make
and sell clothes, isn’t’ it?
It starts small. You work hard, design clothes, sometimes they get appreciated,
sometimes they go unnoticed, sometimes they get featured in magazines and
papers and other times they don’t. Your publicist will pitch stories to the
media about your inspirations, your journey as a designer, what makes you and
your designs special. The focus right now is making you a brand, promoting your
work and getting you the publicity. When a celebrity wears your clothes to an event
– awards, party, launches, screening, it is definitely grand: it gets you
media, it helps promote you as a brand and people start paying more attention.
However, it is not the long and short of it. You can’t chase after the celebs
to get your foot in the fashion industry, quite the opposite actually. Firstly,
a brand has to reach that level that a celebrity would wear your clothes and it
involves hardcore public relations. The job of a designer is to concentrate on
creating fashion. As your publicist will tell you, just work on your designs and
rest he/she will take care of.
Even after you score a celebrity to endorse your brand, you still need to come
up with celeb-worthy designs, don’t you?
A brand has to make a mark in the
world of fashion through its creativity and uniqueness. A well-known
personality wearing your clothes can get you up there but your clothes need to
shine with him. Imagine someone overpowering your clothes, outshining them
completely and taking all the attention away. This is one of the disadvantages
when a celebrity wears your clothes – his grandeur takes away from the clothes
aura.
A PR professional who gets these requests often would always suggest that there
is a lot more to brand building. Undoubtedly that will position you as a
celebrity fashion designer but unless the brand talks about its unique
proposition, it will be just 15 minutes of fame.
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