Le Jacquelope
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India gets the better paying creativity based jobs to serve the American market as clothes fail to get any cheaper, but look on the bright side: this will result in a hundred more Wal Marts in which former fashion designers will partake of the many new cashier, janitor and greeter jobs that free trade is creating!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/2006031...U85T5H2_sEF;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-
Fashion design outsourcing is vogue in India
Wed Mar 15, 10:56 AM ET
India has long provided the world with clothes, made cheaply to patterns drawn up in Paris, New York and other global fashion centres.
Now, it is starting to design them too.
Mohammed Nomaan is at the forefront of this new wave of outsourcing in India that manufacturers here say could one day pose a cut-price challenge to the fashion industry in Europe and the United States.
A graduate of India's National Institute of Fashion Technology, Nomaan sits at a computer workstation in the high-tech city of Bangalore surrounded by fabric samples and patterns pasted on white sheets along with 40 other designers at Munch (Platform) Design Workshop.
The jobs were made possible by sweeping changes in global textile trade rules last year that ended quotas on imports from countries like India and China and prompted offshore companies to save money by linking design and manufacturing in India.
The World Trade Organisation estimates that as a result, India's slice of the 400 billion dollars-a-year textile market will rise to 15 percent from four percent.
Nomaan, 23, has already designed clothes for global brands such as Levi's, John Players and Dockers.
Munch on Tuesday signed an apparel design outsourcing deal with Orsay, a France-based fashion house which has more than 400 outlets in Europe, said Karunesh Vora, the chief executive officer of the company.
"If you look at the cost of one workstation it will work out to 4,000 pounds (308,000 rupees) in United Kingdom. In India the price is between 20,000 rupees and 40,000 rupees," he said.
"The end of quota system will mean more and more value-added work will flow into India. Our revenues will more than double this year as there is no dearth of business," Vora said.
"A couple of years ago Indian companies were given the design by international firms and told to make the garments. Now that is dying a slow death."
Vora started operations a year ago and has clocked revenues of eight million rupees (178,000 dollars) last year to December.
For designers in Paris and New York, the rule change means competing with highly-skilled people in India whose wages and costs are a fraction of theirs, although it is unlikely to affect the high fashion market just yet.
The offshore fashion companies also recognize that computer software makes it possible to review designs, fabrics, patterns and the finish easily and then have the apparel manufactured in India.
"India has a long history when it comes to craft, fabric, patterns and culture," Vora told AFP. "We have the skills and manpower. There are lot of young designers out there wanting to prove themselves."
According to Vijay Agarwal, chairman of India's Apparel Export Promotion Council apparel exports are expected to rise 16 percent year-on-year to 6.5 billion dollars in the financial year ending March 2006.
Prithi Pais, 35, who opened her 'Pink Pepper Studio' last year in Bangalore has roped in global clients such as H et M and Esprit.
Prithi, a former design head of Levi's, says outsourcing is big business now.
"I have been in the design business for the last 10 years," she said. "This sector is more lucrative. Also you get to do more in terms of creativity as you tend to work with different brands.
"India is the buzzword when it comes to outsourcing. So I took the plunge. The job is tough as we have to tune ourselves to trends, do a lot of research and learn how to package the product," she said.
Realising the potential of the industry, Indian Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram cut in half excise duties on man-made fiber and filament to eight percent in last month's annual budget.
Chidambaram said he had also approved 10 "textile parks" which will get tax concessions and other incentives.
Technology companies are also jumping on the fashion bandwagon with an Indian firm, Reach Sewn Technologies, setting up a centre in Bangalore for computer-aided designs to global fashion studios.
"The moment a hand-drawn sketch arrives from a foreign firm in either Europe or the United States our software starts working," said Shyam Raj, chief executive officer of Reach Sewn.
"We apply mathematical models to arrive at the exact measurements for various sizes.
"It is done in a matter of minutes. We are also selling the licensed product for a fee varying between 15,000 dollars to 20,000 dollars," Raj said. "Our firm interprets and creates various components of the garment in the computer."
The two-year-old firm employs 300 professionals and its revenues are expected to double during the year ending March 2006 from last year's 250 million rupees, Raj said.
"This financial year (ending in March 2007) we will set up a subsidiary in China employing about 60 people," he said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/2006031...U85T5H2_sEF;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-
Fashion design outsourcing is vogue in India
Wed Mar 15, 10:56 AM ET
India has long provided the world with clothes, made cheaply to patterns drawn up in Paris, New York and other global fashion centres.
Now, it is starting to design them too.
Mohammed Nomaan is at the forefront of this new wave of outsourcing in India that manufacturers here say could one day pose a cut-price challenge to the fashion industry in Europe and the United States.
A graduate of India's National Institute of Fashion Technology, Nomaan sits at a computer workstation in the high-tech city of Bangalore surrounded by fabric samples and patterns pasted on white sheets along with 40 other designers at Munch (Platform) Design Workshop.
The jobs were made possible by sweeping changes in global textile trade rules last year that ended quotas on imports from countries like India and China and prompted offshore companies to save money by linking design and manufacturing in India.
The World Trade Organisation estimates that as a result, India's slice of the 400 billion dollars-a-year textile market will rise to 15 percent from four percent.
Nomaan, 23, has already designed clothes for global brands such as Levi's, John Players and Dockers.
Munch on Tuesday signed an apparel design outsourcing deal with Orsay, a France-based fashion house which has more than 400 outlets in Europe, said Karunesh Vora, the chief executive officer of the company.
"If you look at the cost of one workstation it will work out to 4,000 pounds (308,000 rupees) in United Kingdom. In India the price is between 20,000 rupees and 40,000 rupees," he said.
"The end of quota system will mean more and more value-added work will flow into India. Our revenues will more than double this year as there is no dearth of business," Vora said.
"A couple of years ago Indian companies were given the design by international firms and told to make the garments. Now that is dying a slow death."
Vora started operations a year ago and has clocked revenues of eight million rupees (178,000 dollars) last year to December.
For designers in Paris and New York, the rule change means competing with highly-skilled people in India whose wages and costs are a fraction of theirs, although it is unlikely to affect the high fashion market just yet.
The offshore fashion companies also recognize that computer software makes it possible to review designs, fabrics, patterns and the finish easily and then have the apparel manufactured in India.
"India has a long history when it comes to craft, fabric, patterns and culture," Vora told AFP. "We have the skills and manpower. There are lot of young designers out there wanting to prove themselves."
According to Vijay Agarwal, chairman of India's Apparel Export Promotion Council apparel exports are expected to rise 16 percent year-on-year to 6.5 billion dollars in the financial year ending March 2006.
Prithi Pais, 35, who opened her 'Pink Pepper Studio' last year in Bangalore has roped in global clients such as H et M and Esprit.
Prithi, a former design head of Levi's, says outsourcing is big business now.
"I have been in the design business for the last 10 years," she said. "This sector is more lucrative. Also you get to do more in terms of creativity as you tend to work with different brands.
"India is the buzzword when it comes to outsourcing. So I took the plunge. The job is tough as we have to tune ourselves to trends, do a lot of research and learn how to package the product," she said.
Realising the potential of the industry, Indian Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram cut in half excise duties on man-made fiber and filament to eight percent in last month's annual budget.
Chidambaram said he had also approved 10 "textile parks" which will get tax concessions and other incentives.
Technology companies are also jumping on the fashion bandwagon with an Indian firm, Reach Sewn Technologies, setting up a centre in Bangalore for computer-aided designs to global fashion studios.
"The moment a hand-drawn sketch arrives from a foreign firm in either Europe or the United States our software starts working," said Shyam Raj, chief executive officer of Reach Sewn.
"We apply mathematical models to arrive at the exact measurements for various sizes.
"It is done in a matter of minutes. We are also selling the licensed product for a fee varying between 15,000 dollars to 20,000 dollars," Raj said. "Our firm interprets and creates various components of the garment in the computer."
The two-year-old firm employs 300 professionals and its revenues are expected to double during the year ending March 2006 from last year's 250 million rupees, Raj said.
"This financial year (ending in March 2007) we will set up a subsidiary in China employing about 60 people," he said.
